I'll Never Let You Go
by Heavenli24
Summary: This is the sequel to Lean on Me, which was set at the end of Cry Your Name. This story begins the morning after.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** I'll Never Let You Go

**Author: **Heavenli24  
**Pairings/Couples/Category:** M/L  
**Rating:** TEEN/MATURE  
**Disclaimer****:**The characters of "Roswell" belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN. They are not mine and no infringement is intended_._  
**Summary:** This is the sequel to _Lean on Me_, which was set at the end of Cry Your Name. This story begins the morning after.

**Author's Note: **I couldn't tell from the episode Cry Your Name if Alex's funeral was held during the week or at the weekend, but for this fic I have assumed that it was held on a Thursday and so the next day is a school day. The title is taken from the _Third Eye Blind_ song _Never Let You Go. _This was my first long story, written between 2005 and 2006._  
_

* * *

**Part One**

The loud beeping of the alarm clock woke Liz at 7 a.m.. She was confused at first when she opened her eyes and reached up to rub the sleep from them. She didn't remember climbing the stairs to her room, let alone going to bed. A few moments later it dawned on her: Max had come over last night; he'd comforted her and apologised to her and then had been kind enough to hold her until she fell asleep.

Liz smiled as she remembered how safe she had felt in his arms and turned her head towards where he had been lying beside her. Her smile faltered when she realised that he was no longer there, but she then realised that he must have returned home to his parents and Isabel. They would probably be worried if he had been out all night.

Her thoughts turned to Isabel. God, how was she coping with all of this? It had taken a lot for her to finally let someone in and to allow herself to get close to Alex and now any chance they had to be together had been taken away. Liz made a mental note to ask Isabel if there was anything she could do for her when she next saw her. She had heard from Maria that Isabel was planning on graduating a year early and going off to college in San Francisco. To Liz, it sounded an awful lot like she was running away from the situation which was possibly not the best thing to do right now.

After a couple of minutes of contemplation over the events of the night before, especially of Max's insistence that they would discover the truth about Alex together, Liz decided that it was probably best get out of bed and face the day. She had no idea how she was going to act around Max when she saw him. Was the closeness between them last night just a momentary lapse due to everything that was happening around them or could it really be that they were on the way to becoming good friends again?

Liz had really missed spending time with Max. There had been so many times over the last few months that she'd been on the verge of going to him and blurting out the truth about what he'd seen the night of the Gomez concert back in October. Seeing the hurt on his face every time he'd looked at her afterwards had almost torn her apart. She just wanted to tell him that it had all been a lie and that she was still in love with him. But whenever she caught a glimpse of him with Michael or Isabel or Tess she was reminded of their destiny and what might happen if their four-square was ever broken up.

Liz shook her head to rouse herself from the deep thoughts consuming her and returned to getting ready for the school day. Maria had promised to give her a ride to school so that together they could face the whispers and stares that Liz knew would be aimed at them by the rest of the student body. She was glad that she wouldn't have to brave it alone.

As she got dressed and brushed her hair, Liz wondered how Max was holding up this morning. When they had spoken last night, she had been so caught up in her own emotions that she hadn't thought to ask him how _he_ was handling everything. She couldn't even imagine how he must have felt being the one to climb into that van and attempt to save Alex. It must have been devastating for him to realise that he couldn't help him.

Liz placed the hairbrush down on her dressing table, staring at herself in the mirror as a lone tear escaped from the corner of her eye, slowly making its way down her cheek.

* * *

Max was awake long before his alarm sounded that morning; in fact, he'd barely gotten any sleep at all, his mind consumed with thoughts of Liz. He hadn't wanted to leave her alone, but he'd known that his family would be wondering where he was. So he'd waited until she was sleeping peacefully before he'd slipped out onto her balcony and down the ladder into the alley behind the Crashdown.

Actually, that wasn't strictly true; it took all of his willpower to leave her asleep on her bed. After removing his arm from behind her head and making sure that she was comfortable, he had just sat on the edge of the bed and watched her sleep.

As his eyes roamed over her drawn, yet still incredibly beautiful face he'd questioned how it was that they had grown so far apart. They had almost been like strangers to each other recently and he hated that. Although he still felt hurt and betrayed by what he had stumbled upon in her bedroom that night in October, he had to admit that he needed Liz in his life, especially now. He wasn't sure how much more he could handle. Seeing Alex lying in that van outside the morgue and realising that he could not heal him, had affected him more than anything else had in his entire life. All he'd wanted just then was to break down, to fall apart in someone's arms. But instead, he'd had to be the strong one, comforting everyone else; desperately attempting to convince them all that everything would be okay.

That was partly why he'd gone to see Liz the night before, to talk to someone, but when he'd seen how distraught she was, he immediately pushed his own feelings aside, focusing on her alone. At that moment Liz's feelings were more important to him than his own and he would have done anything to help ease her pain. Max hoped that Liz would be okay, that she would recover from all of this. He'd truly meant what he'd told her, about working with her to find out the truth. He was more than willing to put the past few months behind them and start over.

However, there was still the question of Tess and their supposed destiny. He didn't think that he could just abandon that part of his life, no matter how screwed up it was all becoming. Tess would most likely be offended if he told her that he no longer wished to work on memory retrieval exercises with her. To be honest though, he'd much rather concentrate on the present and his life on Earth than on a past life that no longer existed. Thinking about it, he realised that he had mostly gone along with it for her sake, not because he had any real desire to explore his past.

Liz had told him that she knew he'd kissed Tess at the Prom, and that she was okay with it. But he knew that deep down she probably wasn't. His own blood boiled at the mere thought of Liz even touching anyone else, let alone kissing them and if she had once felt about him even close to the way he'd felt about her all these years, he guessed that maybe she was not as okay with it as she claimed.

With that thought, he decided that he _had_ to talk to Liz again, to explain exactly why he and Tess had kissed, that it really wasn't what she obviously thought it was and that _he _wasn't okay with it. In truth, he really had no idea what had possessed him to kiss her. One minute he was merely telling her that he had remembered their first kiss back on Antar and the next they were re-enacting it! How exactly had that happened?

Max was startled out of his thoughts by the blaring of his radio, indicating that the time was now 7.15am and he realised that he needed to stop contemplating and get his ass out of bed if he was going to make it to first period. As he pulled on a clean blue T-shirt and his favourite faded jeans, he made a resolved decision to find Liz at school today and talk to her. Deciding that he would track her down during fourth period (which fortunately they both had free) he sighed and swinging his backpack onto his shoulder, he made his way out of the house towards the jeep, where Isabel was already sat waiting for him.

* * *

Liz was still seated at the dresser when she heard the impatient beep of a car horn, the sound coming from outside her window. That's probably Maria she thought and stood up to gather her books for the school day. Her suspicions were confirmed when her mother's voice drifted through the apartment.

"Liz, are you ready? Maria's here."

"I'll be right down, Mom" she called, frantically stuffing everything into her backpack and pulling it onto her shoulder. She made her way through the apartment and down the stairs to the Crashdown.

"Bye, Mom, I'll see you later," she said, giving her a quick hug before walking through the swinging door into the café. She picked up a muffin from the counter and half walked-half ran outside to Maria's Jetta.

"Hey, Maria," she murmured as she slid into the passenger seat of the car. They exchanged a quick reassuring hug.

"Morning, Liz. How are you holding up after everything?" asked Maria, her voice filled with concern for her closest friend.

"I'm surviving, practically," she sighed. "It's just so hard, you know? To realise that he's really gone."

"I know what you mean. I keep reaching for the phone to give him a call, but I get halfway through punching in the numbers before I remember that he's not there to pick up."

"Oh God, Maria, what are we going to do?" Liz was distressed. "I haven't even been here for you over the past few days. How are you doing? Is Michael taking care of you?"

A small smile graced Maria's face at the mention of Michael. He had been so supportive and loving towards her. "Oh, Liz, he's been so great. He's even been spending time with me and my Mom while Sean's out of town."

Liz blanched and looked out of the window when Maria spoke about Sean. She _really _did not want to think about him right now. Instead she turned back to face Maria.

"You are so lucky to have him, Maria," she said.

"I know; can you believe it? Who would've thought that Michael Guerin was capable of being so sensitive and caring towards another human being, right?" said Maria. Liz smiled at her in return.

"He's not driving with us this morning?" she queried.

"No. He said he had something he wanted to do before school, so we arranged to meet up later," replied Maria.

She then seemed to suddenly remember something. "Look, Liz, I'm sorry about that whole argument that happened between all of us yesterday. I know that you have a theory about what happened to Alex, but as far as I'm concerned it was an accident. I love you, Liz, but I don't think my brain can handle any more than that right now, so do you think that we can agree to disagree about it and leave it at that?" Maria was practically pleading with Liz by this point.

"Maria, I can understand how you feel, but I don't think I can drop it. I _need_ to know what really happened, not just for my own peace of mind but for Alex's sake as well " She held up a hand to stop Maria before she could even begin to protest. "_But_ I won't try to drag you or anyone else into it," she chose not to mention her agreement with Max in her speech. She felt that right now it should just be kept between the two of them. She continued, "And if I do find out the truth and you don't want to know about it, I won't tell you. But please understand that this is something I have to do." She finished with unshed tears glistening in her eyes. Maria noticed this and immediately softened.

"Oh honey, if it's that important to you, I won't stand in your way. And thank you for accepting my feelings." She pulled Liz into another quick hug. As she withdrew she caught a glimpse of the dashboard clock, "Oh God, Liz, we're gonna be so late for school. We'd better go."

With that she started the car and swiftly manoeuvred it onto the road heading towards the school.

Five minutes and some borderline dangerous driving later, the Jetta pulled up outside the school. Several students were still milling around outside, indicating that they had made it on time Liz stepped out of the car and clutching the shoulder straps of her backpack braced herself for the day ahead. Maria saw this and approached her, linking an arm through hers.

"Come on, girl. We can do this," she said, her tone determined. She glanced in the direction of the group of students at the school's entrance; already there were a few stares directed towards them. "Just ignore everyone else," she advised and then tugged on Liz's arm to get her moving.

Liz took a deep breath. "Okay," she exhaled, "I'm ready, let's go."

Ignoring the speculative gazes of their peers, the two girls made their way into the school towards homeroom.

* * *

A few moments after Liz and Maria had entered the school, an old army jeep pulled into the car park and Isabel and Max got stepped out quickly. They too were late because of a conversation between them. As he made his way into the school building, Max recalled their words a few minutes earlier.

…He was apprehensive as he approached the jeep parked in the Evans' driveway. Isabel was leaning against the side of the vehicle, her arms folded across her chest and a very annoyed expression showing on her face.

"_Where were you last night, Max? Mom and Dad were worried. We needed you here Max; _I_ needed you here. Do you have any idea what it's been like for me the last few days?" she cried, her eyes filling with fresh tears. She tried to will them away, but it was no use._

_Max's expression softened and he pulled her into a comforting hug. "I'm sorry, Iz, I really am." He pulled back to look into her eyes. "I didn't mean to be gone that long, I lost track of time," he explained. He had honestly been intending on checking on Isabel when he'd arrived home, but it was so late and he had truly been exhausted._

_Isabel wiped her eyes with the back of her hand._

"_Where were you, Max?" she asked again._

"_I went to see Liz," he said and Isabel's features softened in understanding._

"_Oh God, I didn't even think about how Liz was feeling. She and Alex were so close. She seemed so together and determined yesterday. How is she?" she enquired._

"_She wasn't doing so good last night. So I stayed with her for a while," Max explained. "I apologised to her as well, you know for how I spoke to her at the Whitman's yesterday. I was angry with myself but took it out on her. We talked through some things and we're okay now," he paused momentarily. "I'm sorry that I wasn't here for you last night, but it was so late when I got back. I didn't want to disturb you."_

"_Max, it's okay, I understand. But about what Liz said yesterday, what if she's right and it wasn't an accident? We don't know who could be out there, looking for us. Oh God, what if it _was_ Kivar? What if what happened to Alex is my fault? What if he used him to get to me? What if…" she was cut off when Max placed a consoling hand on her shoulder._

"_Iz, calm down. It _wasn't_ your fault, ok? Alex knew the dangers involved with knowing us and he still stuck around. He still wanted to be with you. I would _never_ blame you for something like this, none of us could, not even Alex himself," he reassured her._

_She raised her tear filled eyes to his and gave him a small watery smile. "Thank you, Max." He smiled back at her._

"_Come on, it's getting late and we'd better get to school." He pulled her into a quick hug and helping her into the passenger seat of the jeep before getting in himself. He gave her a quick, reassuring glance before pulling out of the driveway._

_As he drove, he thought back to their discussion. He hadn't offered any more information regarding his conversation with Liz. He didn't think that either Isabel or Michael would approve of he and Liz investigating the accident right now, especially with Isabel's decision that she was going to graduate early and move away to college in the fall._

_He grimaced as he recalled that information, he would have to talk to her about it later. In his opinion, his sister was using college as an excuse to run from her emotions and that wasn't going to solve anything. It was also important for all of them to stick together right now, particularly if he and Liz did manage to uncover something in their search. _

_A smile crept onto Max's face at the thought of Liz. He would be able to see and talk to her again in a just couple of hours…_

An urgent tug on his arm pulled Max out of his memories. He looked up; Isabel was standing at his side looking at him with an incredibly vulnerable expression. He nodded at her briefly and took her arm, linking it with his reassuringly before continuing into the school.

He understood completely how she was feeling at the moment. She was afraid to face their peers, unwilling to deal with the stares and whispers behind her back. He gave her arm a gentle squeeze as they swiftly walked through the corridors towards homeroom and the beginning to the school day.

_TBC…_


	2. Chapter 2

Part Two

Liz sighed as she turned the corner and headed towards the library. She was intending on spending her free fourth period doing her homework so that she could have a free evening. She didn't want to admit it but her other reason for deciding to study rather than spend the hour with Maria was that she just was not in the mood to talk to anyone about the last few days. She just wanted some peace and quiet.

She reached the library and took a seat, removing her books from her book bag and placing them on the table in front of her. However, when she opened the reading material, she found that she just could not concentrate.

Her mind drifted back to earlier in English class. She had arrived a few minutes early and had found the classroom empty except for one student. Isabel. Remembering her worry over Isabel's situation that morning, Liz took the opportunity to ask her how she was holding up and if there was anything she could do. Isabel had thanked her politely for her concern and told her she appreciated the offer, but that she just needed some space for a while. Liz was a little hesitant to leave it like that, but she felt she had to respect the girl's wishes and not push any further.

With a nod to Isabel she'd then moved to take her seat ready for the beginning of the class.

Liz was roused from her musings by a gentle tap on her shoulder. Startled, she gave a small jump and whipped her head round to see who had interrupted her. It was Max.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Hey," he smiled back. "I just wanted to see how you were this morning. Er, can we talk?"

"I'm better today thanks, Max. Uh, sure we can talk," she glanced around the quiet room. "Not here though."

"I know. I have to go hand in a paper, but can you meet me in the Eraser Room in five minutes?"

"Uh, sure, Max," she said. "I just have to go put these books in my locker and I'll be there."

"Okay, great. I'll see you in five, Liz." He smiled and then turned and quickly made his way out of the library.

Liz gathered up her work and carried it out of the room. No need to put it back in her book bag since it was going straight into her locker. She was glad that Max had approached her this morning.

She'd been looking out for him earlier but hadn't seen him until just now. They needed to talk about what they had discussed last night and how they were going to find out what really took place the night Alex was killed.

Four minutes later Liz was standing outside the Eraser Room door. She was a little nervous about being alone with Max again. Despite how comfortable they had been with each other the night before, they were still not the best of friends, and being alone with him in the Eraser Room, with memories of some pretty heavy make-out sessions last year still lingering, could prove to be more than slightly awkward for not just Liz but Max too.

She took a deep breath, opened the door and stepped inside. Her breath caught in her throat; Max was leaning against the table in the corner, his arms folded across his chest. He looked gorgeous. Liz could see the defined muscles of his upper arms peeking out from the short sleeves of his t-shirt. Even though they weren't together, no _couldn't be_ together, Liz was still extremely attracted to Max.

Actually, if she was totally honest, she was still in love with him and the thought of he and Tess together made her want to throw up. Yet she knew that the two of them belonged with each other and that the fate of the world rested on them being together.

Liz hastily pushed all thoughts of Tess aside and concentrated on the upcoming conversation between her and Max.

Unbeknownst to her, Max was also trying resolutely to push away his feelings for her. He knew that they were no longer a couple and, if he was honest he hadn't completely gotten over her betrayal with Kyle a few months ago. However, he still sensed her the moment she reached the Eraser Room door and that feeling caused a rapid fluttering of butterflies in his stomach.

He crossed his arms over his chest in an attempt to calm himself, but all that did was make him even more on edge. When the door opened and she entered the room, his senses went into complete overload. She was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Sure, they had managed to keep things platonic between them for the past few months and he was opening up more to Tess, but that didn't mean that his breath didn't catch in his throat every time he saw her. He'd been in love with her for over ten years, for God's sake!

Suddenly realising that he was staring at her, Max knew he had to break the silence.

"Hey," he smiled.

"Hey, Max," she replied. "What's going on?"

"I just thought we should talk, you know, about what we're going to do," he said, his eyes on her face.

"Yeah, we should," she replied, but then remembered something. "Max, before we do, I wanted to ask how _you're _handling all of this. Last night I was so caught up in my own feelings, I didn't even ask how you were doing. I can't even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for you go into that van and not be able to use your powers to bring Alex back."

A pained expression crossed Max's face as she spoke. He suddenly found himself fighting tears and attempting to swallow the sob that had just risen up in his throat. He looked away.

"Liz," he choked out. "Don't worry about me I'm…"

"No! Don't do that, Max; don't tell me you're fine, because I know you're not," she scolded. "Talk to me Max, let me help _you_ now. I can handle it"

Max looked back and saw the resolution and determination in her eyes. There was something else too, compassion. Compassion for him. That was all it took. His chest heaved and a sob escaped from his lips. He lifted his left hand from where it was folded in front on him and covered his face, wanting desperately to compose himself.

Liz was at his side in an instant, her hand rubbing soothingly up and down his arm. She looked up at his hand-covered face and saw that he was quickly losing control.

Without another thought she stepped in front of him and wound her arms around his neck. Almost immediately his right hand moved around to support her back whilst his left hand cupped the back of her head. He pulled her to him tightly, as if holding on for dear life.

"Hey, it's okay," she soothed. "Tell me."

"It's just, I was terrified, Liz," he confessed. "I didn't want to do it. I think I knew deep down that I wouldn't be able to save him; that it was too late. But everyone was relying on me, putting so much faith in me that I had to at least try.

"But he was so cold and there was so much blood…" he couldn't continue.

"Oh God, Max, what did we do? How could we have made you do that? I'm so sorry," cried Liz, clutching him tighter.

The tears were now falling uncontrollably and Max buried his face in Liz's neck. Her fingers twisted in his hair as she stroked it. She held him like that for several minutes while he let out his grief.

Liz found that she too was struggling to hold back tears as she comforted him.

Max slowed calmed down and pulled back from her to wipe his eyes with his fingers.

Liz gave him a small sad smile. "Feeling better now?" she asked as her eyes searched his.

Max took a deep breath before answering. "Yeah, a little. Thanks, Liz, I needed that."

"Anytime, Max. That's what friends are for."

Max smiled briefly at her. Although he wasn't completely satisfied with them being _just friends_, he could live with it for the moment. That wasn't what was important right now anyway. They had other things to worry about. Like finding a killer.

Once Liz was sure that Max was okay and had composed himself again, she took a step back to face him fully. She looked up at him, making eye contact.

"So…" she began.

"So…" echoed Max tentatively.

"So what do we do now? Where do we start?" Liz asked.

Max felt uncertain at this point. Honestly, he had no idea how they would go about this. He was ready to assure her that everything would work out fine and that he would come up with something, but he realised that he needed to be completely honest with her.

They had to do this together.

She was so determined and invested in the idea that Alex's death was not accidental that he couldn't expect her to let him take charge and tell her what to do when.

"Truthfully, Liz? I have no idea at this point. I mean, I've seen the police files and the evidence and we've both talked to Valenti. Realistically, where else can we look for information about this? Do you have any suggestions?"

"Well, I was thinking, I found those concert tickets in Alex's room. We could go through his things in his bedroom. Maybe there's something else there that could help us," Liz proposed.

"Are you sure we could do that, Liz? I mean, that's almost an invasion of privacy. How would his parents feel about that?"

"I think they would be okay with it, I mean his dad let me sit in there for a few minutes yesterday. That's how I found those tickets." She paused for a moment, trying to think. Suddenly it came to her. "Wait a minute, Maria mentioned something in first period about doing a spread about Alex for the yearbook we could tell his Mom and Dad that we're gathering things of his for the tribute."

Max looked doubtful. "Are you sure about this? It seems a little risky." Liz's expression turned determined at this and Max knew it was best to back off, at least for now.

"Max, this could be the only way. Maybe there's some information on his computer or something, I mean his, like, whole life is recorded on that thing, he was always using it for some reason or another."

"Okay, Liz. I get it," he responded quietly. "Tomorrow is Saturday, why don't we head over to the Whitman's in the morning and see what we can do?"

Liz looked relieved and somewhat pacified. "Okay, that sounds good, I get off work at 11am so we can go after that." She agreed. "Thanks again, Max, you know for helping me out."

"It's no problem, Liz. And it's not just for you, I want to know the truth too."

They shared a smile that was intended to be brief on both parts, but somehow the minute their eyes locked, it became something more. Neither could find the strength or the desire for that matter to look away.

They each found themselves somehow drawn to the other and the short distance between them began to close. Their lips were just inches from each other and Liz's eyes started to close of their own accord. She ran her tongue over her lips in anticipation, momentarily forgetting that they weren't supposed to be doing this.

Max too was on the verge of giving in to his lingering feelings for Liz, but as he leaned in towards her, an image of her and Kyle flashed through his mind and he pulled back abruptly.

"Okay, so we'll meet tomorrow and go over to the Whitman's, see what we can find. How about I pick you up after your shift at eleven?" he said hurriedly.

Liz's eyes snapped open at the sudden sound of his voice. She looked hurt for a second before remembering their situation and quickly pasted a smile on her face to cover it.

"Okay sure, Max. Tomorrow at eleven."

She turned to leave the room. At the door she looked back at him. "Bye Max, I'll see you later," she smiled almost sadly and slipped through the door leaving Max standing in the middle of the small room, a dejected look on his face.

TBC… 


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

The remainder of the day passed pretty uneventfully for both Max and Liz, although Liz was much more interested in thinking about Max and their meeting in the Eraser Room earlier than concentrating on her class work. She couldn't believe that she'd almost given into temptation and kissed him right there! _She_ was the one who'd pushed _him_ away in the first place, insisting that they couldn't be together. What was he going to think if she just turned around and did the complete opposite?

She glanced over at Max, who was seated near the front of the class, by the window. He appeared to be listening intently to their teacher, looking completely engrossed in the lesson. Liz took the opportunity to study him whilst he was unaware of the attention. The afternoon sunlight from the window bathed his features in a warm glow, which Liz thought made him look even more handsome than usual. She thought back to the previous evening at the Crashdown. She was still marvelling over the fact that Max was willing to put the events of the past few months behind him and help her uncover the truth. She wasn't sure if she could be that forgiving if the circumstances were reversed.

Liz continued to watch him until she realised that he had started fidgeting, as if he knew that someone was watching him. She quickly averted her eyes and attempted to concentrate on the textbook in front of her.

Across the room, Max was quite unexpectedly getting totally involved in the topic being discussed by their teacher. After Liz had left him alone and just a little confused in the Eraser Room, he hadn't thought he'd be able to concentrate on anything else. But rather than dwell on what had or rather had not happened between them for, he had decided to put it to the back of his mind for the moment. If he spent all his time analysing it, he would never be able to concentrate on anything else.

As the teacher began to wind down his speech, Max felt a strange tingle at the base of his neck, as if somebody was scrutinising him. He glanced round the room and his eyes rested on Liz. She looked completely absorbed in taking notes, something that made him smile to himself. He'd felt a small sparks of hope that perhaps she had been watching him, but she didn't appear to have acknowledged his presence in the slightest. He turned his head back towards the front of the room. Adjusting his position slightly at his desk, he quickly brushed the strange feeling away and returned his attention back to the work. He was just being paranoid, that's all it was.

He was extremely relieved when the bell rang to signal the end of the day. He could finally go home and just rest; it had been a tough week and he was glad that the weekend had finally arrived. Maybe he could take some time tonight to think about and possibly come up with some kind of strategy for going about his upcoming investigation with Liz.

* * *

Max returned home from school to find his mother hard at work in the kitchen, although considering how her dishes usually turned out, he wasn't sure he particularly wished to find out what she was cooking for dinner.

He gave an involuntary shudder as his thoughts drifted back to the frittata recipe his mother had tried a few months ago. He and Iz had to practically force themselves to swallow each mouthful.

Diane Evans chose that moment to turn around and notice her son standing in the doorway causing Max to hastily replace his slightly disgusted expression with a pleasant smile.

"Oh, hi, honey, I didn't see you there," said Diane, looking a little flustered. The new recipe she was trying out was currently making no sense to her. "Did you just get in?"

"Hey, Mom. Uh yeah, I did," he told her. "Is that dinner?" he asked.

"Oh, yes it is. I thought I'd try something new. I found an interesting casserole recipe that I just knew you kids would love," she announced proudly as Max struggled to keep the smile plastered on his face. He could only imagine what 'interesting' ingredients might be going into it.

"Sounds great, Mom, I can't wait to taste it," he covered. "I'm just gonna go to my room. Uh, can you let me know when we'll be eating?"

"Sure, honey," she smiled.

Max turned to leave the kitchen, but before he could take a step his mother's voice stopped him.

"Oh, Max, have you seen your sister? Didn't she come home with you?" asked Diane.

"No, she said she wanted to walk home today. I think she just needs some time to herself," explained Max.

Diane's face softened and she gave an understanding nod. Of course, her children had had so much to deal with in the last week.

"But she's doing okay, isn't she, Max? And you? You've been so strong about this, how are you doing?"

The expression on his face became sombre at her words and he found himself blinking back tears. Tears for Isabel, and for his mother's innocence in all of this. She had no idea what their lives were really like, what they really had to deal with every day.

"I'm fine, Mom," he tried to assure her, but she just gave him a look. "Okay, so I'm not really that fine, but I need to be here for Izzy right now. That's what's important."

Max was struggling to keep it together. His mother's question had brought back the memory of Liz asking him the same thing earlier that day, and the pain that had come with his tears.

"Honey…"

"No, Mom. Don't, please. I can't talk about this right now," he pleaded. "I'm going to my room. I'll see you at dinner."

With that, he adjusted his backpack on his shoulder and quickly made his way towards his bedroom, leaving Diane staring sadly after her son.

* * *

Max closed his bedroom door behind him and leaned his head back against it, the backpack falling to his side. He squeezed his eyes shut tight in an attempt to stop the tears that were threatening to fall.

Everything was so messed up.

One of their group and Isabel's almost boyfriend, was dead; Isabel wanted to move away; he and Michael spent most of their time at each other's throats; he and Liz were barely even friends anymore and on top of all that; he was supposed to be king of a planet he'd never even seen and husband to a woman he did not love.

God, he was no king; he was barely even a man!

How did it all go so wrong in just a year?

Max let out a long sigh as he felt the tears begin to escape. Resting his head in his hands, he allowed his body to sink to the ground, exhausted from the stress of the whole situation.

He was unable to prevent a strangled sob escaping from his lips. He tried to get himself together, but the tears just kept coming. He could do nothing but let it out.

He had no idea how long he just sat there against the door, overcome by his emotions. When he did eventually lift his head from his hands, he realised that almost half an hour had passed. He briefly wondered if Isabel had returned home yet. He hadn't heard her arrive, but then he had been a little preoccupied.

Glancing at the clock again, he realised he had to calm down and freshen up; he would be called him for dinner soon.

As if on cue, the sound of his mother's voice floated towards his room.

"Max, dinner's ready!"

Max wiped his eyes and quickly cleared his throat before replying.

"I'll be there in a minute, Mom," he called.

On his way to the kitchen, Max ducked into the bathroom. _Thank god for alien powers_, he thought as he passed his hand over his face, erasing all evidence of his mini breakdown.

Satisfied with his appearance, he left the bathroom, walking into the kitchen and taking a seat at the table where the food was now dished out and his mother and Isabel were already sat.

"Hey, Mom, Iz," he smiled at each of them in turn as he spoke their names. "Where's Dad?"

His mom turned to face him. "Your father will be down in a minute," she said and then suddenly smiled eagerly. "He said to start without us, so go on kids, tuck in."

Max and Isabel exchanged apprehensive glances before reluctantly digging in.

* * *

After dinner, Max sat on his bed with his back propped up against the headboard, his legs stretched out in front of him and a book open in his lap. He was supposedly trying to get a head start on next week's reading assignment for English, but his mind was elsewhere.

He was thinking back over the last few weeks. Had anything been different recently? Any clue that something was not right? If Alex's death was indeed not accidental, then surely _something_ should have warned them that danger was on its way.

The only thing he could think of that had changed was that Alex had gained confidence since his trip to Sweden. Which was a good thing, although maybe not so much for Isabel, who had been more than a little disappointed that he'd been so cool with her after his return.

But who would even want Alex dead? He was not really that involved in all the alien stuff, apart from helping them out occasionally and the only things about him that stood out were his exceptional skills with a computer and his association with Isabel.

What if Liz had been right and someone had used Alex to get to Isabel and send a message to the Royal Four? But if that was the case, what significance did his death have, what did it mean?

The many questions were whirling through Max's head. Logically he knew that thinking about it so much wasn't going to help anything. He wouldn't know anything more until he went with Liz to Alex's house in the morning.

Max was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts by a tapping at his window. He removed the open book from his lap and wearily made his way towards noise. He didn't dare to hope that it might be Liz; _why would she be here anyway?_ He chastised himself. No, it was probably just Michael, ready to chew him out for something or other.

He pulled back the curtain, and through the glass came face to face with the one person that he really had not given much thought to during the last couple of days.

He reached forward to swing open the window.

"Tess," he acknowledged flatly. He really wasn't in the mood to deal with her and her ideas of destiny right now.

"Max. Hey," she gave a small, tentative smile. "This isn't a bad time is it?"

Max gritted his teeth and forced a smile onto his face. "No, of course not, Tess." He just couldn't bring himself to be unkind to her and turn her away; it wasn't in his nature.

They stood there looking at each other for a few seconds, before Tess grew uncomfortable and shifted her weight uneasily.

"Um, do you think I could come in, Max?"

"Oh, uh sure," he said and moved aside to let her in.

She now stood in the middle of his room, her back to him as she glanced around. Her hands rested almost anxiously at the top of her thighs.

"What are you doing here, Tess?" he asked tiredly once she'd climbed through.

At his question, she turned to face him.

She took a deep breath, "You know, we haven't really talked about what happened between us at Prom. I thought maybe we could do that now."

Max's expression was unreadable as he regarded her silently for a second before replying.

"Tess," he said in a warning tone. "I really don't think that this is the time to be discussing this. With everything that's happened this week, discussing Prom is not exactly on my list of priorities." He crossed his arms over his chest in a defensive gesture.

To be honest, he really had not been looking forward to talking with her about their supposed 'relationship' and he couldn't believe that she had just brought it up like this. It was like, the _least _important thing to be thinking about right now.

"I know that, Max, but - "

He cut her off, "But nothing, Tess. I'm not going to talk with you about this now," he told her firmly. He brought one hand up to rub his forehead, and then returned it's previous position. "Please, just go home. We'll speak about all this in a few days when things have calmed down a bit."

Tess reluctantly nodded her head, feeling defeated. She had hoped that she and Max could have talked about that kiss at the Prom, and in return she would have offered him comfort and a shoulder to cry on. Maybe that would have brought them closer, she thought as she made her way back to the window.

As she passed Max, she made a spilt-second decision and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck in a hug. Max stood frozen his arms trapped between them, what the hell did she think she was doing?

"Tess - "

"Don't worry, Max," she said, her face buried in his shoulder. "I'll be here for you. If you need someone to talk to about all this." She pulled back and looked up at him.

He had no idea how to react.

"Uh, thanks, Tess," he forced a tight smile.

"No problem," she smiled back, forgetting for a moment that he'd asked her to leave.

"Look, I'm really tired, Tess…" he trailed off, hoping that she would take the hint. Luckily, she did.

"Oh, sorry," she glanced at him one more time before turning back to the window and climbing back through. She gave him a slight wave and then left.

Max stared after her as she walked away, even more confused than before.

He closed the window and walked to his bed. Turning out the light he sank down under the covers and tried to get comfortable. After a few minutes of tossing and turning he realised that he was not going to get to sleep anytime soon.

God, what was he going to do?

_TBC…_


	4. Chapter 4

**Part Four**

Liz sighed wearily and leaned on the table she was cleaning. One arm held her up as the other swiped across her forehead and her eyes closed automatically. It was almost 9 am on what had to be the busiest Saturday morning the Crashdown had seen in the last two months and there were no signs of it calming down anytime soon.

She was already exhausted and there were still two hours before she would be meeting with Max. She really hadn't slept well last night, her mind spinning with possible theories and ideas. She also had to admit that some of the time had been spent thinking of Max and how she might possibly survive working so closely with him without giving into temptation.

Her eyes flew open in surprise and she jumped when a tray loaded with dirty dishes was dramatically dropped onto the table. Glancing to her side, Liz saw that Maria was standing next to her and she looked pretty annoyed.

"Man, I can't believe this day!" she exclaimed. "It's not even 9 and this place is packed! You'd think these people would have something better to do with their time than come here for breakfast!" she finished. Her voice had risen considerably by the end and some of the patrons had tuned to look at her.

"You know, Maria, keep talking so the customers can hear and pretty soon you'll get your wish," Liz retorted, although she made sure that her voice was significantly lower than Maria's had been.

Maria's response to this was to roll her eyes and make a face at her friend.

Liz saw and realised how she'd sounded. "Sorry," she apologised. "I know what you mean though, I feel like I'm gonna fall asleep any minute."

Maria's expression turned to one of concern. "Didn't sleep well, huh?" she asked. The look on Liz's face told her that the assumption was correct. "Me either. I was tossing and turning all night."

"It's just that with everything - " started Liz.

"Hey, I know," Maria interrupted softly, her eyes full of understanding. "We're all trying to deal with this right now, you don't have to explain anything to me."

Liz gave her a sad smile in response and Maria squeezed her arm in a comforting gesture.

"Come on, let's get moving, or we're going to have some very annoyed customers soon," she said in a slightly more cheerful tone as she picked up the tray again and made her way towards the kitchen.

Liz stared after her for a few seconds before looking back down to the table she had begun to clean. Only one hour and fifty-five minutes until Max would be here, she realised as she continued on with her shift, somewhat comforted by the thought of seeing him again so soon.

* * *

Max reached the Crashdown at exactly 11 am. He parked outside and made his way towards the door. As he opened it and walked through, he caught a glimpse of Liz disappearing into the back room. No doubt she had just finished her shift and had gone upstairs to change.

As he waited for her to reappear, he thought back to the realisation that he'd come to in the early hours of the morning.

These last few days around Liz were the only times over the last year that he had felt like himself, like he had felt back in Sophomore year. Ever since that awful night last October, no, before that; when Liz had walked away from him and gone off to Florida last May, he had been feeling off-kilter.

He'd allowed himself to be sucked into a life full of alien issues and the responsibility of being a leader, and in the process he had lost sight of who he really was; his human side, and now he desperately wanted it back. His life was empty without it.

Max didn't know how exactly he was going to get it, but somehow he knew that it would involve his relationship with Liz, in whatever capacity that may be.

He put his thoughts on hold as he saw Liz walk back through the swinging door; she looked amazing dressed in dark jeans and a green spaghetti strap top.

Liz smiled as she caught sight of him standing by the cash register. He almost looked nervous, she thought.

"Hey, Max," said Liz once she reached him.

A small smile graced his face as he replied. "Hi, Liz. Are you ready to go?" he questioned.

"Yeah, Maria's working until 12, so I'm free to leave now."

"Okay," he said and gestured to the door, inviting her to go through first. "Shall we?"

Liz smiled, "Thanks, Max." She stepped past him to push the door open, and they left the café.

Reaching the jeep, Max held out a hand to Liz to help her up before getting in himself.

The short journey to the Whitman's was made in almost complete silence, with only the odd word spoken between them. It wasn't intentional, but Liz was trying desperately to stay awake after her bad night's sleep, and at the same time Max was lost in thought.

They reached the house quickly and Mr. Whitman was happy to let them sit in his son's room for a while. He told them that he understood how hard this must be for them and all of Alex's friends and anything that he could do to help them was his pleasure.

Once they had entered Alex's room and shut the door behind them, Liz immediately pushed aside her fatigue and headed straight for a stack of papers by the desk. She began rummaging around for anything that might give them a clue to Alex's state of mind at the time.

Max stood with his back against the door and observed her frantic movements with a troubled frown.

"Liz," he said urgently. But Liz appeared not to have heard him and continued her search, opening and closing the desk drawers in earnest.

"Liz," he tried again. There was still no indication that she had heard. Max made his way over to her side and placed his hands over hers, halting her movements.

"What?" she snapped. She kept her eyes locked on the pile of papers she was holding, not willing to acknowledge the feel of his hands touching hers.

"Liz," Max said softly. "Stop." She turned her head to look at him and he could see the tears that had begun to fall down her face.

"What are you talking about, Max?" she sniffed, trying to keep the tears out of her voice. "We need to find out whatever we can while we're here and we don't have much time."

"I know we do, Liz," he comforted. "But we can't just dive in and turn the room upside down. We need to be calm and rational about this. You know, think it through first."

Liz's shoulders slumped in defeat. "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just…" she trailed off.

"Hey, it's alright. I understand," said Max. "Let's go sit down, okay?"

He led her over to the bed and they took a seat on the end. "You mentioned yesterday about Alex's computer," Max started. "Why don't we start there?"

Liz didn't look at him but nodded her head anyway and reached up to brush away her tears.

Max continued, "Do you know how to get into it?" he asked, glancing over to the desktop where the laptop was lying.

"I think so," replied Liz. "But there might be passwords set up."

"Why don't you have a go and I'll take a look at the other things near the desk?"

"Okay," Liz smiled at him and gave a slight nod. As she stood up to go to the desk, Max squeezed her hand in an encouraging gesture. Liz glanced briefly at him before making her way across the room.

Max watched her as the sat at the desk and opened the laptop. He realised that this was probably harder for her than for him. She and Alex had been close friends for a lot longer than he had really known Alex, or Liz for that matter. He knew that she was trying to be strong but he could also understand her desperation to find out the truth.

He was glad that he could be there to help her through everything. Maybe after they had solved this mystery he would talk to her seriously about their relationship (or rather, current lack of it) and try to work things out between them.

He had decided that perhaps it was time to put the past behind him. He'd really missed being in her presence, and in his opinion the main thing keeping them apart right now was the fact that she had slept with Kyle. So maybe it was time to forgive and forget. Deep down, Max knew that despite their so-called past relationship on Antar, he could never be truly happy with Tess and it was time that he set both her and Liz straight on that fact.

Renewed determination coursed through Max's body as he mentally prepared to confront Liz with this decision, his attention now focused on how he might get through to her rather than on the task at hand.

He had yet to move from the bed.

Sitting in front of the computer, waiting for a file to load, Liz realised that the room had gone awfully quiet. It appeared Max had not yet made any attempt to begin searching and she felt a sudden rush of annoyance towards him.

Was he really here to help her, or did he just volunteer so he could keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't uncover anything that might put them in danger.

Ignoring the whirring of the laptop for a second, she whipped her head round to the bed where she was sure Max was still sitting. Sure enough, there he was, in the exact same position as he had been when she'd left him. She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, but the moment her eyes met his, the words stuck in her throat.

The look in his eyes drew her in. It was a look that she hadn't seen on his face in a long time and it made her uncomfortable. But no matter how much she wished she had the strength to, she just couldn't tear her eyes away from him.

His gaze was almost…hungry; no, it was heated. And it caused a flush to creep up her neck and her stomach to give a flip.

Time seemed to stand still for the both of them.

Several moments passed and Liz wasn't sure how much more she could take of this staring contest they seemed to be in. She made one last desperate attempt to break both the gaze and the silence that had descended upon the room. She felt a wave of relief when she finally managed to clear her throat and speak his name.

"Max…"

Unfortunately, it came out in more of a breathless whisper than an urgent signal to get his attention.

She tried again, "Max!"

This time it came out clearly and Max snapped out of his trance. He blinked and shook his head slightly, slowly realising where he was and what had just happened.

"Sorry, I must have spaced out for a second," he tried to cover, his face burning. "Is something wrong, Liz?"

Liz glanced at the screen behind her quickly before replying, she tried desperately to push her feelings to one side, "No, nothings wrong, Max," she assured him. "But weren't you going to look through the rest of this stuff?" she asked, gesturing towards the mess on her left.

"What?" he asked quizzically. Then it dawned on him; he was supposed to be helping her search for evidence. He quickly thought of an excuse as to why he'd been staring at her. "Oh, yeah, of course. Sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night."

"It's okay," she smiled. "I didn't either" He sent her a sympathetic look and stood up to help.

They spent the next few minutes in silence, Liz searching through files and folders on the computer, Max leafing through Alex's notebooks and schoolwork.

Liz was just about ready to give up, when something in the folder she was going through caught her attention. She double-clicked on the file and it opened up.

"Max! Come look at this!"

Max's head snapped up at her sudden exclamation and he quickly made his way to her side, gazing over her shoulder at the screen.

He dropped the notepad he was holding.

"Oh my God!"

_TBC…_


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five**

Max stared at the computer screen in shock. What _was_ this?

The document was a thorough character profile, complete with pictures, personal information and a detailed life history.

That, in itself, was not exactly a cause for concern.

What was shocking to both Max and Liz was the subject of the profile, which was given in the title.

_Elizabeth Parker_.

Liz let out the breath she'd been holding, "What the hell?" she exclaimed, quite uncharacteristically for her.

Max scanned the file frantically. At the bottom there were several unanswered questions about Liz and her life as well as a section titled Theories. It appeared that Alex had been investigating Liz.

But, why? What would Liz have to hide? And why now? His mind was racing with questions. What was going on?

Max was so caught up in these thoughts that he missed the distraught look that had settled on Liz's face. He finally noticed it when she spoke again.

"Max, what's going on?" she sounded so vulnerable that Max's attention immediately focused on her. "What was Alex doing?"

"I don't know, Liz. But we're going to find out," he reassured her determinedly. He looked back to the screen, "This must be a mistake," he said, almost to himself.

They both stared at the file for several moments, reading what was written there, attempting to take it all in. But Max soon realised that it was gonna take a good while to go through it completely and they wouldn't be able to stay in Alex's room for much longer without Mr. Whitman wondering what they were up to.

He glanced around the room quickly, until his eyes rested on the printer in the corner by the window. He turned back to Liz.

"Why don't we print this off and then we can take a better look at home?"

Her eyes still fixed on the screen, she reluctantly nodded her head yes. Max leaned over her to select the print option with the mouse. The printer came to life and they waited for the document to print. Max collected the freshly printed pages from the printer and handing a few to Liz.

"I printed two copies so we can both take one," he explained. She nodded again and took the sheets from him, looking down at them. He noticed that what they contained had really shaken her up and he attempted to put her mind at ease.

"Look, Liz. We don't know what this means yet. Just don't worry too much about it right now, okay?" She raised her eyes to his face in acknowledgement.

Max smiled at her. "You look pretty tired, why don't we meet up again later to look over this properly? I have to work this afternoon, but you could go home and get some rest this afternoon?" he suggested.

Liz smiled at him gratefully. As much as she wanted to analyse the printout of the file, she really was exhausted. "Okay, Max. I think I will," she agreed. "But we'll take a look at this again later, right?"

"Yeah. I'll come over to the Crashdown after my shift and we can talk about this."

"Okay, but can you meet me on the balcony?" she requested. Max shot her a puzzled look. _Why does she want me to do that?_ Liz caught his expression and elaborated. "I'd rather not have to explain what we're doing to my parents. They'd probably try to stop me looking into this."

"Oh," Max said in understanding. "Okay. Well, that's fine. I'll be there around 7.30."

"Great," said Liz. "Well, we might as well get going then. I don't think I could handle any more investigating right now."

She headed towards the door. "I'll just go tell Mr. Whitman that we're leaving now. I'll meet you by the jeep, okay?"

Max nodded and watched her leave the room. He sighed and made his way out of the house to the car. He hoped, for Liz's sake, that the content of the document that Alex had been working on had nothing to do with his death and their investigation. It was just for a school project or something, he told himself. You know, like a 'profile of your best friend' kind of thing.

Yeah, that's what it was.

* * *

Max only had to wait a couple of minutes for Liz to emerge from the house. He helped her into the jeep again and they drove off. When they pulled up at the Crashdown, Max didn't drive away immediately, but stayed and watched Liz until she disappeared inside the building.

He still had some time before he had to get to work and so decided to return home and grab something to eat. When he arrived at the house, he found Isabel sitting alone in the kitchen. She was staring into space, a forlorn expression gracing her features.

Max reached over to grab an apple from the fruit bowl in the middle of the table and then sat down across from her.

"Hey, Iz."

The sound of her brother's voice startled Isabel and she jumped, her hand moving to cover her heart.

"God, Max! Don't do that," she exclaimed.

He winced and then looked slightly sheepish. "Sorry."

"I thought you were working today, Max," said Isabel, slightly annoyed that he'd interrupted her thoughts.

"I am, but I don't start for another hour," he explained.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes until Max couldn't take it any longer. He turned to his sister.

"So what's wrong, Iz?" he asked meaningfully.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong, Max," she exclaimed, a little too quickly.

He just stared at her with a knowing look on his face. "Come on, Isabel. I know when something's up."

She sighed, "It's nothing." Max raised his eyebrows and Isabel gave up.

She held her hands up in surrender. "Okay! Okay, I'll tell you."

He just smiled at her gratefully and waited for her to continue.

She lowered her elbows to the table and rested her head on her hands, her fingers combing through her long blonde hair.

"Well, you know I was planning on going to college in San Francisco this Fall…" she started.

Max knew all right. In fact he had some things to say to her on that front.

However, for the moment he bit his tongue. He owed it to his sister to hear her out right now. His issues with her all too sudden decision could wait for now.

"Yeah," he agreed, trying to keep the apprehension he felt out of his voice.

"Well, I've been thinking…" she trailed off uncertainly.

"Hey, it's okay, Iz. You can talk to me about anything, you know that," Max reassured her, as he reached out to take her hand across the table.

She took a deep breath and smiled at him a little. "I know."

"I just, I don't know what it is, but I feel like I should be _here_ in Roswell, like something's trying to keep me here" she stopped for a moment to really look at him. "But Max, I really want to go. No, I _need_ to go. I just have to get away from here for a while."

"Iz…"

"Look, Max. If you're going to give me some lecture about how we all have to stay together and that it's not a good idea to leave right now, then just stop right now. I don't want to hear it, okay?" she snapped, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"I wasn't going to," he replied indignantly. He tried again, "Look, I know you're hurting and upset right now and who could blame you, but…" he stopped. "You wanna know what I think?"

"What?" she sniffed, not unkindly.

"I think that the only way that _you_ think you can cope with what happened to Alex, is to get away from Roswell and everything that reminds you of him." He continued quickly before she could interrupt, "Which is perfectly understandable, given the circumstances. But Izzy," he paused briefly. "Are you sure that going away to a college hundreds of miles away, for _four_ long years is really going to allow you to deal with everything that's happened here?"

"Max, you don't understand what it's like for me here now," Isabel burst out angrily. "Everywhere I go, I see and hear things that remind me of things Alex said or did and can't handle it!"

"I do understand!" Max found himself raising his voice at her. "You don't think I feel like that sometimes as well? Alex was _my_ friend too!" he cried. "_I _was the one that had to going into that van to try and heal him. And I _did_ try, Iz, but there was too much blood and he was so cold!" There was a pause. "There was nothing I could do and it kills me that I couldn't help him."

"Oh Max," whispered Isabel. "I had no idea. I've been so busy trying to escape from everything that I haven't even thought about anyone else."

Max managed to calm himself down enough to give her a sympathetic smile and lower his voice.

"Look, I'm not saying that you can't go _anywhere_, but right now I think that this is grief talking and it's probably not the best time to be making big, life-changing decisions like that. But," he continued, "You _do_ deserve a break from Roswell. There's only a couple more weeks left of school, how about you go stay with Aunt Sarah up in Colorado for a few weeks? I'm sure she'd love to see you," he paused for a second. "You could still graduate early, but it would give you some time to think. You know, away from everything," he suggested.

Isabel was silent. Her immediate reaction was to tell her brother to stop interfering. It was her life and she could do whatever she wanted!

But deep down, she realised that her decision _had_ been completely spur of the moment and to be honest, she hadn't really thought it through properly, beyond getting out of Roswell.

"You know what, Max? Maybe you're right. All I can think of right now is leaving this place. And I know that I'm being rash and impulsive, but I just can't help it."

"Hey, it's okay to feel that way. But you know I'll always be here for you. And so will everyone else. We're all in this together, remember?"

His words comforted Isabel, and she smiled. "Thanks, Max. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You're my sister, Izzy. You won't get rid of me. _Ever_," he teased, trying to lighten the atmosphere. He was rewarded with a slight smile from her.

Max placed his forgotten apple on the table, stood up and made his way over to her. Realising his intentions, Isabel also got to her feet and wrapped her arms around him. "Thank you, " she whispered into his shoulder.

"Anytime," he whispered back, giving her a comforting hug.

After a few moments he pulled back to look at her. "Are you okay now?" he asked.

"I think so. For now," she replied.

"Okay," he smiled. "I have to go get ready for work now, so I'd better…" he made a gesturing motion towards his room with his hand.

Isabel nodded, "Alright. But you'll be around later?"

Max didn't want to lie to her, but he didn't feel that Isabel would be particularly receptive of the fact that he was going to be spending time with Liz tonight instead of with her.

"Oh, um, I'm not sure. I might have to stay behind and do inventory or something, so I might be back late," he said quickly.

"Oh, well okay," said Isabel, her face falling slightly. "But you'll definitely be here tomorrow?" she knew she sounded needy, but right now she didn't care.

"Yeah, of course. We'll spent some time together tomorrow, just you and me, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed.

He reached out to touch her arm briefly before turning and leaving the kitchen.

Isabel watched him retreat to his bedroom with a still sad, but more reassured feeling than she'd had a few minutes ago.

_TBC…_


	6. Chapter 6

**Part Six**

Liz was woken that evening by a loud knocking at her window. As Max had so easily noticed earlier, she had been extremely tired and the second she entered her room after Max had dropped her home, she made a beeline for the bed.

Now, several hours later, and not completely aware of her surroundings, she merely shifted under the covers, squeezed her eyes shut tighter and ignored the incessant knocking in the hopes that it would eventually go away. She needed all the rest she could get before Max came over and they continued with their research.

_Wait a minute! Max_! An awful feeling swept over her. _Shit, what was the time?_

She cautiously opened one eye to look at the clock. Unfortunately, instead of glowing, red numbers being in front of her, she was directly facing the window, and the source of the noise that had roused her from her slumber.

Max. Kneeling by the window, gazing into her bedroom, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips.

_Oh God!_ She groaned quietly and buried her face in the pillow. _I can't believe I slept that long!_ _I'm not ready for him to be here yet!_

It was then that she realised the knocking had ceased and she knew that if she didn't get up and let Max in now, he would most likely take it upon himself to use his powers to undo the latch and come in anyway. And once he was inside he would just sit there and wait for her to wake up. She really didn't want to face _that_ awkwardness.

Liz slowly sat up in the bed, this time taking note of the time: 7.45. Wait, 7.45? Max said he would arrive around 7.30. Had he been here that long? Trying to get her attention for fifteen whole minutes? God, this was so embarrassing!

Slowly, unwillingly she turned her head back towards Max and their eyes met. The look on his face managed to be both apologetic and sympathetic at the same time. Liz reached up to run her fingers through her hair, which she was certain was no longer neat and tidy, and got out of the bed. She reached the window and slid it up to greet him.

"Hi," she said sheepishly.

He grinned at her, "I guess you really were tired then."

"Yeah, I guess I was!" she replied, a slight laugh in her voice. "I'm so sorry, I didn't think to set my alarm. I didn't expect to sleep that long," she explained, before asking, "Have you been here long?"

"Only a couple of minutes," he lied. "I had to stay at work later than I expected."

Liz let out a small sigh of relief. "Look, why don't you come in and I'll just go freshen up in the bathroom?"

Max nodded and climbed through the window while Liz gathered some non-wrinkled clothes to change into and headed for the bathroom. She invited him to take a seat and make himself comfortable and told him she would be with him in few minutes.

Since the bed was unmade, Max took a seat at Liz's desk and awaited her return. He felt slightly guilty for lying to her just now, but she probably would have killed him if he told her the truth.

And the truth was, he'd actually arrived on Liz's balcony a few minutes earlier than their arranged meeting time. He'd hoped that she wouldn't mind him being a little early, but when he approached her window, he saw that she was still asleep. His first thought was that he should leave and come back in a few minutes when she was awake, but for some reason he could not tears his eyes away from the vision in front of him. So he contented himself with sitting outside her window and watching herself sleep.

Lying there in sleep, she looked so peaceful and unaffected by the tragic events of the last week and Max wished so much that he could simply wave his hand and make all of her hurt and sadness and grief disappear. But he couldn't and it made him feel helpless, that _this_ time he did _not_ have the power to heal the girl he loved.

Before he knew it, the beeping alarm on Max's watch alerted him to the fact that the time was now 7.30pm and as he looked back at Liz in the bed, he realised that she had not yet arisen. He decided that he should wait a few more minutes to see if she would wake up naturally, and if not then he would try to get her attention by knocking on the window. He didn't really mind waiting; after all, what was better than watching the person you were in love with sleep. Sitting here, with no one else around, Max allowed himself to imagine what it might be like to actually sleep beside her every night and wake up with her each morning. The idea seemed so… normal that it almost brought tears to his eyes. If only their lives _could _be normal.

The minutes passed and at 7.43, with no movement yet from Liz, Max decided that he'd better knock on the window. He tried several times, but still nothing and so decided to do it continuously in the hope that she would stir. As he raised his hand back up to the window, he mentally rolled his eyes at his dilemma. Was she always such a deep sleeper? And if so, how difficult was it going to be to get her up in the mornings?

_Whoa, hold on there a second, Max! _He thought. _You're_ _getting a little ahead of yourself there! _

He didn't have too much time to dwell on her thoughts, because a couple of minutes later he saw Liz stir. He stopped knocking and found he couldn't keep the smirk off his face when he saw her cautiously pry open one eye. He realised that she must have seen him at the window, because barely a second later she turned pale, as if she'd seen a ghost, and buried her face in her pillow.

He only had to wait a few moments before she sat up and ran her fingers through her hair, no doubt trying to look more presentable. However, Max could not have cared less about her appearance. To him, she _always_ looked beautiful.

When she'd approached the window and opened it to speak to him, he'd found himself wondering how on Earth (or any other planet, for that matter) he was going to get through the rest of the evening alone with her in her room.

Now, sitting in her room, facing the bed, with its covers strewn about the bed in the most alluring way and the thought of Liz half naked in the bathroom, Max knew he was in trouble.

* * *

Across town, in a small two-bedroom bungalow, someone else was having trouble sorting through their emotions. However, these were not feelings of love or even of lust, but feelings of dread and fear.

Everything was so jumbled and confused in the person's mind that no sense could be made of anything.

Something had happened. Actually, something was _still _happening. Changing. Something in the air was different.

But what? And why?

The questions just kept coming and the confusion continued. It was like something was missing, like a memory that was just out of reach, but if recovered, could uncover the truth.

This couldn't be happening.

How had everything changed so much in the space of only a few months?

In the small room across town, the individual was trying to cope with the constant feeling that someone was trying to get into their mind, to push them out of the way. Like something was trying to take control of both their mind and body.

But what? Or who?

Something was seriously wrong and they had no clue what that was or how to fix it

These thoughts and questions continued to plague the mind of the person lying on the single bed in the bungalow. Questions that had prevented them from sleeping the past few nights and which had now put a stop the possibility of relaxation during the waking hours.

Would anyone even listen if they tried to explain that something was not right about the happenings of the last few weeks and months?

Would anyone even care?

* * *

By the time Liz emerged from the bathroom, Max had managed to push his personal feelings to the back of his mind and was ready to discuss the morning's events; namely, the file that they had discovered on Alex's computer.

As she came out of the bathroom, Liz wondered for a moment why Max had chosen to sit on the uncomfortable chair by her desk and not on her bed. But as her gaze slid to the bed she realised why. It was a mess! The covers were hanging over the side, threatening to fall any second. The sheets were rumpled and there was a huge dip in the pillow where her head had been resting. No wonder he didn't want to sit there.

She sent him an apologetic glance and quickly grabbed hold of the duvet, hurriedly making the bed look more presentable. When she was done she took a seat on the end and faced Max.

"So…" she trailed off uncertainly.

"So," Max started, but then found he didn't really know what to say. Luckily Liz chose the next moment to shift into research mode and began firing questions into the air.

"What's going on here, Max? Why did Alex have all that stuff about me on his computer? I mean, what possible reason could he have for trying to _investigate_ me? Was he lying last year when he told me that he was okay with all this alien stuff? Did he not trust me? Was that it?" She finally managed to pause long enough to take a breath, but then continued in a forlorn tone. "Oh, God. Did he think that I'd done something to put you guys in danger? Cos Max I could never do that to you, I swear." Her eyes were pleading with him.

"I know that, Liz," he replied, in comfort.

He felt an overwhelming sense of dismay that obviously Alex _hadn't_ merely been carrying out a school project. But really he'd known that all along. He just hadn't wanted to admit to himself that there actually _was_ something strange going on here.

"Look, I don't know, Liz. Do you have those sheets we printed out earlier? We should go through them properly and see if we can find any clues."

Liz took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Okay."

She reached for her backpack and pulled out the printed file and a pencil to make notes with. While she was doing that, Max pulled the papers from his back pocket and skimmed over them. He looked up at Liz and saw that she was ready to begin.

"Right, okay, well the first page just has your personal information on it. Nothing out of the ordinary," he stated.

Liz watched him with baited breath. She hadn't dared look at the file since that morning, a little afraid of what she might find. "What about the next one?" she asked.

Max looked up in surprise. "You haven't read it yet?"

"Uh, no," she looked up at him sheepishly. "I couldn't bring myself to look at it, you know?" she explained.

Max nodded in understanding, holding her gaze for a second before looked back down at the pages and continued.

"Well, the second page is pretty confusing. He's written all these questions about you, but he doesn't seem to have answered them."

"What kind of questions?"

"Like where you were on certain dates and at certain dates. But, Liz, all of these times were when you would have been at work or at school… or out socialising." He had to mask a grimace at the thought of Liz going out and having fun with people that weren't him, _guys_ that weren't him. After what she'd obviously done with Kyle, who knew how many other guys she'd gone out with since? He knew he was just being jealous and irrational, but he couldn't help it.

"But, why would he be suspicious of _you_, Liz? It just doesn't make sense!"

Liz could only nod mutely, her eyes fixed on Max's hands holding the pages.

She had no idea why.

A shiver ran down her spine at the thought of Alex probing into her life like that.

She wasn't sure she really wanted to find out.

_TBC…_


	7. Chapter 7

**Part Seven**

Two hours later, they were still no closer to discovering what had been going through Alex's mind in the months before his death.

What they had determined though, was that Alex had been absolutely certain that Liz was up to something and that she knew more about the aliens than she was letting on.

But what obviously _didn't_ add up was that Liz truly had no idea what he thought she had done.

Even if she was a good enough liar to convince Max that she had no other knowledge of Michael, Isabel or him, other than what they'd found out together, when in reality she _did_, there was no way she could possibly lie to herself.

She had no memory or knowledge of being or knowing anything other than what it was to be human. All she knew was her life spent growing up in Roswell.

In fact, Liz Parker had not even believed that aliens existed until she met Max Evans and discovered his amazing secret.

There must have been some kind of a mix up, maybe someone had got to Alex and had messed with his mind, convincing him that she was a traitor and was working against him and humanity in favour of an alien race.

But who would do that? And for what reason?

To create a rift between the group in an attempt to get rid of her, perhaps?

But that didn't make any sense. Why would anyone target _her_, an innocent human, whose only real ties to extraterrestrial life were her all-encompassing feelings for one?

Why not go after the Royal Four directly?

However, there was a nagging thought in the back of her mind that just wouldn't go away.

Tess.

She had the ability to mindwarp, to make people see things that weren't real. And if Liz was completely honest with herself, she knew that Tess probably still considered her a threat when it came to Max, despite the fact that she'd backed away from him, leaving the coast clear for Tess to make her move.

She shook her head. What was she thinking?

Sure, Tess might have a jealous streak when it came to Max, but she'd never really been mean or vindictive.

In fact, over the last few months she'd seemed to settle in well with the Valenti's and life in Roswell. She'd helped them out on so many occasions now and after those first few awkward weeks when she'd first arrived in Roswell, she'd never given any of them a reason to be suspicious of her.

Liz thought back bitterly to that night when Future Max had come to her and told her that he and Tess were meant to be together; that she had to make his younger self fall out of love with her so that he would turn to Tess and, along with Michael and Isabel, the four of them would then become a complete unit with the strength to defeat their enemies.

Suddenly, thoughts of Future Max and what she'd given up for him engulfed her and she became completely oblivious to her surroundings and the fact that Max was sitting right across from her on the bed. As her mind ran through the events of the few short days that a 31-year-old Max Evans had been in her life, she suddenly realised something.

Alex's death really _was_ her fault.

But not in the way that the printed file in front of her implied.

With a cold feeling of dread, Liz realised the awful ramifications that her decision to help the battle-weary, older Max Evans change the future had caused.

Her brain was stuck on one simple phrase of speech. It was whirling around and around in her mind, not giving her a second's peace.

"We had a great wedding. You called Maria, Michael, Isabel, and Alex, and had them meet us halfway."

Alex.

Alex had been at their wedding. When they were nineteen.

In that timeline he had still been alive.

If she hadn't made Max believe she had slept with Kyle and therefore changed the future then he would be alive now.

At that awful thought, Liz closed her eyes in silent despair, her hand coming up to her mouth to muffle the strangled sound that suddenly erupted from her throat.

_This was all her fault_.

The sudden, unexpected noise that broke the somewhat comfortable silence that had settled over the room caused Max to look up sharply. He had been staring once again at the file, deep in thought. He just couldn't fathom how Alex might have gotten it into his head that Liz was working against him, against them all. Where could he have got the notion that she was a traitor?

He hated to admit that his first thought was that Tess was somehow involved.

Although she had been accepted into their tight-knit group and they had been gradually forging a tentative relationship, he still wasn't certain that he completely trusted her.

He had to admit that she had given them no real reason to be wary of her motives, there was something about the way that kiss happened at Prom and her sudden appearance at his window last night, when she gave no indication that she knew her appearance was ill-timed and inappropriate, which made him feel a little uncomfortable around her, although he had been careful not to show it.

He was just beginning to feel frustrated with himself for not being able to come up with any ideas that would help them, when the muffled sound from Liz reminded him that he was actually not alone in the bedroom.

When he looked up and saw her sitting cross-legged in front of him with her eyes closed, brow furrowed and right hand covering her mouth, he immediately forgot about his search and sat up straight, gazing at her in concern.

"Liz? What's wrong?" he asked worriedly, it wasn't like her to just break down like this, especially in the presence of others.

There was barely a response from her, just a slight shake of her head and another stifled sob.

Max leaned forward towards her. "Liz?" He reached over and placed a comforting hand on her knee.

She opened her eyes slightly and he saw the tears glistening in them, threatening to spill down her face.

"Oh God," she whispered from beneath her hand, not really seeing him. "It's all my fault."

Max was confused, she couldn't honestly think that she _did_ have something to do with Alex's death? He knew there was no way she had done anything wrong. He had seen into her soul, remember?

"What's all your fault, Liz?"

This time his voice seemed to snap her out of it and she gave him a fearful glance, realising that she'd spoken aloud. He was not meant to hear that.

She removed her hand, placing it in her lap and tried to compose herself. "Nothing, I…I didn't…" She didn't get any further because the tears finally fell and she couldn't do anything to stop them.

"Liz," Max started. "Look, I know something's wrong. Please, just tell me what it is," he asked softly, his eyes pleading with hers.

"Surely you can't think that any of _this_ is true?" he questioned, gesturing to the pieces of paper strewn about the bed

"No, but – " Max cut her off.

"I know…we _both_ know, that you were not involved in Alex's death in _any_ way."

At his fierce declaration, her bottom lip began to tremble once again. What was she going to do?

While it was true that she had not been directly involved in Alex's recent demise, she did hold some of the blame. But how could she tell Max that without revealing the truth about Future Max and she and Kyle the night of the Gomez concert?

She could see Max's concerned and worried expression as she studied her face carefully and it was then that she knew she had to tell him.

But, maybe she would be able to bend the truth slightly and not divulge to him _everything_ that she'd done.

She was suddenly plagued with doubts. What if he could tell that she wasn't being completely honest with him? Would he believe her story no questions asked, or would he see through it and force her to tell him the whole truth?

There was only one way to find out.

She lifted her chin boldly and looked straight into his soft, pleading eyes.

She took a deep breath, "Max, there's something I need to tell you."

_TBC…_


	8. Chapter 8

**Part Eight**

_There's something I need to tell you_.

Liz's words rang deafeningly in Max's ears and his heart beat wildly in his chest. What did she have to say to him? Had she been lying earlier? Did she know something about all this that she'd been keeping from him?

He realised then, as the questions ran through his mind, that he had been staring at her and hadn't yet responded to her statement.

"What," he swallowed audibly. "What it is Liz?"

When she didn't say anything straight away, he tried another tack. "You know you can tell me anything, Liz. I'm not going to judge you."

"Yeah…I know, Max" Liz nodded and then mentally prepared herself to begin. It had taken almost all of her courage just to say that opening sentence that now she wasn't sure she'd have the nerve to actually go ahead with it and confess the truth to him.

But his obvious concern for her, despite their shaky relationship recently, gave her the confidence to continue.

"What I said just now, Max, about it being my fault…I _was_ talking about what happened to Alex," she said, staring down at her hands.

Max looked bewildered, "What? But that's just not possible – " Liz cut him off hastily.

"I'm not talking about his actual death, Max. I know I had nothing to do with that," she reassured.

"Then, what – " She stopped him again.

"There's something you don't know, Max; something that happened to me a while ago. I never told you about it because I was sworn to secrecy, but I think that Alex dying last week may have been a consequence of it," her voice shook as she tried to explain the best she could.

Now Max was utterly confused. He didn't have a clue what Liz was talking about. How could she think that something she'd done months ago could somehow be the cause of the mysterious death of one of her best friends?

"Liz, I have no idea what you're talking about," he said tentatively.

Liz raised her eyes to his in understanding. "I know. And I'm going to try my best to explain it to you, but you'll just have to bear with me, okay?"

He still seemed sceptical, but nodded nonetheless. "Okay."

"Well, one evening a few months ago," she started. "I received an unexpected visitor; someone I never, ever imagined would appear at my door."

Max looked at her quizzically, but said nothing.

"In fact, at first I refused to believe that they were really standing in my bedroom, right in front of me; I thought it was a trick." She paused, trying to gauge his reaction. When she received nothing but a now curious expression, she continued. "See, Max, this person, this visitor I had, they told me they were from the future. Fourteen years in the future to be exact."

Now that got a reaction out of him. "What?" he cried incredulously, sitting up straight. "Liz, what are you talking about? Time travel is physically impossible!"

She looked at him in understanding. "That was exactly my reaction too, Max. But this person knew things about the future and they knew what was going to happen just before it actually did."

"And you believed them?" he asked, his voice tinged with scepticism.

"Yes," she said simply. "I had no reason not to. And I knew them. I trusted them."

His eyes narrowed. "You keep saying _them_, Liz. Who was it? You obviously knew this person. And if they did really travel through time, how did they manage to do it?"

Liz put her head in her hands and sighed. "Max, I really can't tell you a whole lot about it – "

"And why not, Liz? You can't just tell me this out of the blue and expect me not to ask questions about it." He was annoyed now. She couldn't just dump this all on him with no explanation and expect him to just sit back and accept it. And what exactly did this have to do with Alex anyway? "Because you were sworn to secrecy?" he asked sarcastically.

"Yes!" she sat up and exclaimed. "Look, Max, I know you're confused, but will you please let me get this out? This is hard for me too, you know?"

He sighed and looked away. "Fine, go ahead."

"First of all, I can't tell you who it was, not right now, so can you please just drop it, okay?" she asked and waited for his affirming nod before continuing. "Thank you. Now to answer your other question, they used the Granilith to travel here from the future."

His eyes snapped back to her. "The Granilith? It's a time machine? Wait, is that how you knew to warn me about it, before I went to New York?" It was like a light bulb had suddenly switched on in his head. He was beginning to think that there might be some truth to her words after all. How else could she have known about the Granilith back then?

Liz answered his questions in the order he'd asked. "Not exactly, I was told that it had somehow been modified to enable time travel," she explained. "And yes, that's how I knew about it." She paused for a second, eyeing him carefully. "So, does this mean you believe me now, about the time travel?"

"Well, I'm still trying to get my head around all this. But I guess all I can do right now it accept what you're telling me." He replied. His mind was still full of confusion. He himself had no idea what the Granilith's real purpose was, so he couldn't really query the possibility that it was capable of faster-than-light travel, or that Liz was telling the truth.

"So why did this person travel back in time? Why did they come to _you_? And what does this have to do with Alex?"

Liz took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She really wasn't doing a very good job of explaining this.

"Okay, look, I'm not doing this very well, so I'm just going to get this all out in one go and then you can ask questions when I'm done. Is that okay?"

Max nodded reluctantly and motioned for her to start over.

"Right. Well, this person told me that fourteen years in the future the Earth was attacked by enemies of the Royal Four and there was no way to stop it. Everyone was dying and the Earth had been taken over. So, they came back in time to change the future and to stop the end of the world from happening." She paused for a second to gather her thoughts. "They came to _me_ because there was something that I specifically could do to help. There was something that I had to change in _this_ time so that in the future the war could be defeated. Something had occurred in their time which prevented them from being prepared and it was up to me to make it right"

She saw Max open his mouth to ask what she'd done, but she held up a hand to stop him. "Don't," she said simply. "I can't tell you what I did, or why I had to be the one to do it, but just know that I did it and that it worked." She quickly forged ahead, not allowing him a chance to protest, knowing that she'd never get it out otherwise. "The problem is that while I was helping my visitor, I managed to find out a couple of things about the future. Which, again I can't tell you so don't ask, but the thing is, in _that_ timeline, Alex was still alive. He didn't die in a 'car crash'. He was alive and well."

Her features began to crumple and her bottom lip trembled once more. "You see, Max, if I hadn't listened, if I hadn't changed the future, then none of this would have happened and Alex would be alive." Tears had begun making their way down her face and she was powerless to stop them.

When he heard her final sentence, Max was somehow able to push the overwhelming information he'd just received about people from the future to the back of his mind for later consideration. Right now he had to make Liz understand that whatever it was that she'd done couldn't have been the cause of Alex's death.

Okay, so maybe Alex _had_ still been alive in that timeline, but there was no way that she could have known what would happen because of her choices. In changing the future she had prevented the deaths of so many others who would have otherwise died.

He moved to sit next to her on the bed and enveloped her in his arms. She seemed so torn up about what she thought she'd done, that making her see that she really wasn't to blame was the most important thing right now and he couldn't bear seeing her in so much pain, no matter what the cause. After he'd reassured her and calmed her down, _then_ he could sort through the muddled mess that was his brain try to make sense of what he'd just heard.

"Liz, I might be feeling totally confused and overwhelmed right now, but the one thing I know for sure at this moment is that nothing you've done could possibly be the cause for Alex's death, so please don't blame yourself, okay?"

He held her head to his chest and stroked her hair gently as he spoke. "If what you've just told me is true and you really did change the future, then I know you did it to save the world and for that I'm truly grateful to you, but there is no way that you could have foreseen any of the events that have occurred since then. Please don't spend your time worrying about it and thinking you could have done something to prevent it. It's just not worth it, okay?"

He waited. There was no response from her at first, but a few moments later he felt her head move against him in agreement.

Max knew that there was more to the story than she'd let on. There was something that she was purposely leaving out and when they'd gotten through this evening, he was determined to sit her down and get the whole truth from her. He had to admit that he was pretty angry with her for not yet telling him the identity of her visitor and he couldn't just accept her tale as it was.

The information was extremely important to the group and their lives and he couldn't fathom why she wouldn't tell him. What did it really matter _who_ it was? After all it must have been someone that they knew and trusted _now_, in the present, otherwise Liz would never have believed them.

But why wouldn't she say? Unless something had happened in the future and her visitor brought bad news.

He suddenly had a thought.

Pulling away from Liz a little, he looked at her tear-stained face. "Liz," he started. "This visitor you had, it wasn't…you, was it? From the future, I mean."

Liz's eyes snapped up to meet his. Of all the things he could have said, that was what she'd least expected. She hadn't even considered that he might think that. She was more concerned that he would guess that the visitor had been _him_.

She shook her head quickly. "No, Max, it wasn't me. It wouldn't have been possible."

He moved away from her a little, now sitting facing her on the edge of the bed. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I didn't really understand it at the time, but I was told that if two versions of the same person came into contact with each other, there would be a reaction and both people would cease to exist." Max looked bewildered so she explained further. "It's to do with Quantum Physics: no two particles can exist in the same quantum state at the same time – it's Pauli's Exclusion Principle." Now Max didn't just look perplexed, but also vaguely amused which caused Liz to go on the defensive. "So I went to the library afterward and looked it up," she shrugged awkwardly. "Big deal."

She turned serious once again. "So, no it wasn't me, it was someone else. And the reason I couldn't tell anyone was because it could have had an effect on future events and I couldn't risk that."

Max just nodded, he supposed he understood, somewhat, at least. But he was suddenly feeling extremely tired – drained from the whole conversation. He needed time alone to think, to get his head around the incredible story Liz had just disclosed to him and make sense of the whole thing. Rather abruptly, he stood up and started to gather his belongings.

He turned to Liz, still sat miserably on the bed. "Look, Liz, I think maybe it would be best if I leave now, I really need some time to think about all this. I don't want to leave you in the middle of all this, but I just don't think I have the energy to think about this thing with Alex any more tonight. I'm sorry," he sighed, retrieving his backpack from the bed, hoisting it onto his shoulder.

Liz simply accepted his apology, not know what else to do. He had a right to feel the way he did about her confession and it would probably be best if they both had a few hours to themselves to come to terms with everything.

"Okay," she whispered.

He gave her a slightly tense smile and gestured towards the window through which he had entered. "Well, I'd better…" he left the sentence hanging and Liz nodded again in agreement. She watched as he slid the window up and he gracefully climbed through. He made his way to the balcony ladder and swung his leg over the top, giving her one last sad glance before he descended down the ladder.

Now alone in her bedroom, Liz let out a huge sigh and, ignoring the papers scattered across the bedspread, she sank down onto the pillow, curling up on her side. The evening had not gone as well as she'd hoped and she prayed that Max wouldn't be too angry with her for not telling him sooner.

When she'd explained to him why she couldn't tell anyone about her visit from the future, she'd deliberately left out the part about coming clean to Maria. She knew she wouldn't be able to tell him without including the exact reason _why_ she'd had to tell her, which would mean revealing the rest of the story and she really didn't think that was the best idea right now.

Nothing had changed; she was destined to be alone, but Max's destiny was still Tess; it always would be and there was nothing she could do to alter that.

TBC…


	9. Chapter 9

**Part Nine**

Max walked back to his jeep, which he'd left opposite the Crashdown before his shift. When he'd told Liz he had to leave, he'd intended on going straight home and shutting himself in his room to think, but as he made his way across the street, he realised that Isabel would most likely be waiting for him there and as much as he loved his sister, he really wasn't in the mood for company at this particular moment.

So when he got into the vehicle and started the engine, he found himself heading in the opposite direction. It took a few minutes for his brain to register exactly where he was going and why, but as he left the town behind and drove through the desert; he became more and more focused on his destination: the Pod Chamber.

He had to see the Granilith again, to figure out if there was anything he'd missed before; anything that might indicate it's purpose or it's ability to travel through time.

He was determined as he pulled up in front of the rocks that housed the pod chamber. As he strode across the desert floor and began the climb up the rocks to the concealed entrance of his birthplace, he was so focused on his task that he completely missed the other vehicle parked a few hundred yards from his own.

Max reached the rock face that contained the hidden door and waved his right hand over the spot where he knew the silver handprint would appear. The rock slid across to reveal the cave and he stepped inside.

Immediately he could sense that something was off. He wasn't alone in the chamber. Someone else was here.

He couldn't see anyone, but he could sense them. A quick glance around the small, empty cavern told him that the intruder must have found the other chamber. He cautiously crept towards the entrance to the Granilith and peered inside.

He let out a sigh of relief.

It was Tess.

She was sat with her back against the wall staring at the glowing object in front of her, her knees pulled up to her chest.

Max quietly stepped inside the small room and observed her for a second before he spoke.

"Tess?"

She jumped slightly and her head whipped round to face him.

"Max! You scared me," she said.

"I'm sorry," he apologised. "What are you doing here?"

"Not much, just thinking," she replied, her eyes leaving Max's face and settling on the Granilith once again. "You?"

"Oh, I, er…" Max fumbled. He couldn't tell her about his recent conversation with Liz, or the reason he'd come here. "I just wanted to check out something up here," he thought quickly. "I couldn't sleep," he added as if in explanation.

"Oh," was all she said.

Max moved closer to her and took a seat on the floor a couple of yards away. He couldn't stand there all night, but he still wasn't all that comfortable being alone with her in such a small, enclosed space.

"So, what were you thinking about," he asked.

She appeared deep in thought for a moment before turning to him once again. "Max, I want to apologise to you for last night." Max frowned, but let her continue. "I shouldn't have come to see you out of the blue like that. It was insensitive of me. I don't know what I was thinking."

"Yes it was, Tess," he agreed carefully, wondering what brought this on. "Why are you telling me this now?"

She sighed, looking away again, "I've just been feeling so confused lately. It's like I'm missing something, like moments in time, but I don't know why and it scares me."

He froze. "What do you mean, moments in time?"

She shook her head. "I'm not sure really. It's just…" she trailed off, searching for the right words. "Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, it takes me a few moments to remember what I did the night before and other times I'll just drift off in the middle of the day, like I'm in a daydream and I don't even notice the time passing."

Max's head was spinning now. Not only had he just had the strangest, mind-boggling conversation of his life with Liz, now his supposed ex from another planet was telling him stories of missing memories and passages of time.

It was too much for his brain to deal with. He closed his eyes briefly to calm himself.

"Look, Tess," he said quietly. "We've all been through a lot this past week. You know, maybe it's just stress," he tried to reason, but he didn't think he sounded very convincing.

It most likely wasn't stress. Both he and Tess knew that, but he also wasn't in the right frame of mind at this time to consider any other possibilities or causes.

Tess managed a brief nod, an acknowledgement that she'd heard him, but her expression was wary.

Max noticed this and felt the need to apologise. "I'm sorry, I've not exactly had a great night tonight and I really not feel capable of thinking clearly about this today. I've got some stuff going on right now, how about we sit down and talk about this in a couple of days when we're both feeling up to it?"

She nodded again, resigned. When he'd shown up a few minutes ago, she'd hoped that he'd be able to help her, that he might care enough about her to assist her in her problems. No such luck, however. Something was obviously bothering him and she'd bet her life that it had something to do with Liz Parker.

"Sure, okay. A couple of days." She said as she stood up. She had no desire to stay any longer.

"Where are you going?"

She shrugged. "I'm going home, Max. I've had enough of sitting here in the dark, contemplating my life for one night. But you stay, by all means. Don't worry about me," she told him and walked quickly out of the room.

"Tess?" Max questioned worriedly, but she was already gone.

Once outside the chamber, she broke into a half-run as she scrambled down the rocks towards her car. Why had she ever thought he would take an interest in her problems and help her?

Back inside the cave, Max was bewildered. What had just happened here? And why did he suddenly feel like it was his fault?

He let out an exhausted sigh and leaned his head back against the silver coloured wall.

Everything was even more messed up than before.

* * *

An hour later, Liz was still lying on her bed, one hand hugging a pillow to her chest. Her cheeks were stained with now dry tears and her eyes were fixed on the object held in her other hand.

It was the strip of photos of her and Max. The one she'd told Future Max was private all those months ago.

She sighed. Man, she really needed someone to talk to about this. She reached across for the phone on her bedside table and dialled a number she knew by heart.

"Maria? Hey, it's me. I really need to talk to you. Can you come over?" she asked and then listened for Maria's response. "Okay, I'll see you in a few. Thanks, Maria."

Liz returned the phone to its cradle and sat up. She looked down at the mess of papers and stationary scattered across the bed in front of her. Maria would be here with in a matter of minutes and her room was in complete disarray. Tiredly, she began tidying the clutter and attempted to get place looking more presentable.

Maria was the only person she could talk to about this, the only one who knew the truth. Despite the unspoken agreement between Max and Liz that they would not involve anyone else in their investigation, she couldn't continue feeling the way she did about the whole situation and not confide in her best friend. She needed reassurance that she'd done the right thing by telling Max what she had.

She was still straightening the room when Maria arrived fifteen minutes later. Abandoning her task, Liz let her friend in and they both took a seat on Liz's bed.

"So hun, what was so important that you had to drag me away from an evening in with Michael?" Maria asked, watching her carefully. Something was definitely up with her. She looked tired and drawn.

"An evening in…? Maria, why didn't you tell me you were busy? I wouldn't have asked you to come over if I'd known!" exclaimed Liz.

Maria made a dismissive gesture with her hand. "Lizzie, you're my best friend. I'm not going to just abandon you for Michael when you obviously need me," she rolled her eyes. "You know me better than that."

"But what about Michael?" Liz wondered.

"Oh, he's just fine. Probably making small talk with my mother as we speak," she shrugged.

"You left him at your place? Alone with your mother?" Liz was both incredulous and slightly amused at the thought of Michael and Amy DeLuca trying to hold a friendly conversation.

"Hey, I'll have you know that my mother and my boyfriend are getting along just fine at the moment!" Maria replied indignantly, but then her face softened, a smile gracing her features. "He's just been so great to us both this past week, and my mom seems to have finally accepted him." She gave Liz a 'who would've thought it?' look and rolled her eyes again.

Liz smiled softly. She was glad her friend had someone to look after her, someone to love her. "That's great, Maria," she agreed.

"So, enough about me. Come on then, girl, tell me what's up."

Liz sighed. It was now or never. "Okay. Look, I know I promised yesterday that I wouldn't involve you in all this, but something's come up with the whole Alex situation."

Maria sighed. She couldn't think about this again now, it was all too fresh in her mind. "Liz, please don't," she implored, shaking her head.

Liz looked up at her sympathetically. She hated to upset her best friend, especially when she'd already agreed not to bring up the subject again. "Maria, this is something I have to say, okay. It involves more than just a theory I have. It's gotten complicated and I really need to talk to you about it. Please understand, I'm not doing this to hurt you or spite you. I just don't know what to do," she broke off, the day's events catching up to her once again.

Maria took a closed her eyes and took deep breath. When she opened them again, her expression was softer. "Okay, Liz, just hit me with it - I'll deal." A thought suddenly struck her, "Wait; does this have something to do with the fact that Max picked you up from the Crashdown this morning? Cos last I saw, you two were at each other's throats," she said, eyeing Liz suspiciously.

Liz smiled in relief and began. "It kind of has to do with Max, yeah," she admitted first. "What I didn't tell you yesterday was that Max came to see me at the Crashdown Thursday night. He wanted to apologise for what he said at the wake and I needed to say sorry to him for getting riled up like I did. Anyway, I was kind of upset when he arrived, so he helped me calm down and then told me that he wanted to help me find out what happened to Alex."

Maria interrupted at this point. "He wanted to help? But he was the one who was adamant that it was just an accident!"

"Yeah, well he told me that I was right, that he hadn't wanted to believe it because he did feel responsible. But he realised that there was a possibility that something else _could _have happened and that he wanted to do what he could to help." She paused, awaiting Maria's reaction.

"Wow," she exhaled. "Never would've thought he'd back down like that," she mused. "You must have more influence over him than he lets on, Liz," she grinned.

Now it was Liz's turn to roll her eyes, but she ignored the comment and continued. "So, anyway, we talked at school yesterday and decided to go to Alex's today, you know, to see if we could find anything. That's where we went after we left the Crash this morning," she clarified.

"So, not that I agree with what you did, but did you? Find anything, I mean."

Liz let her eyes sweep over the room as she thought about what exactly they had found. "Yeah, we did, although we don't know what it means yet. I don't have to tell you about it if you don't want me to."

Maria was surprised. She hadn't expected that they would actually discover anything unusual. As far as she was concerned there was nothing to suggest that it had been anything other than a car crash. And she didn't think her brain was quite ready to cope with the implications of evidence to the contrary.

"If you've really found something, Liz, then I guess I should know what it is. But not just yet, okay? Give me a few minutes to process all this first," she lowered her head, cupping her forehead with her hand.

Liz nodded in understanding, but she was glad that Maria was willing to listen. "Okay, I can do that. It's not actually the biggest problem right now anyway."

Maria lifted her head in question.

"I realised something today, about Future Max."

Maria's brow furrowed. "Future Max?" She was confused. What did Future Max have to do with this?

"Earlier, when Max was here – "

She was interrupted. "Wait! Max was here? As in _here_, in this room?" she exclaimed and received a nod from Liz. "Why?"

Liz sighed, at this rate she was never going to get her story out. "Yes, he was here. He had to work this afternoon, so he came over afterwards so we could discuss what we'd found at Alex's," she explained but quickly continued so she didn't get interrupted again. "But while he was here, I remembered something that Future Max told me. He said that when we got married, everyone drove to Phoenix to celebrate with us. _Everyone_," she stressed. "Including Alex."

She let that sink in.

Maria looked confused for a moment, but then realisation dawned. "Liz, you can't possibly think – "

"That I'm responsible for Alex's death? Yeah, I did think that at first, but Max made me realise that I'm not. Not directly anyway."

"Max did? But then that means…" she trailed off. "You told him?"

Liz nodded. "I had to. I was upset and he was right there. I couldn't not tell him what was wrong, I was practically in tears."

"So then he knows about your visit from the future?" she asked.

"Yes, but not – " She was interrupted by the ringing of Maria's cell phone. She was sent an apologetic glance as her friend reached into her purse and pulled out the offending object.

Liz let her mind wander as Maria answered the phone. She was eager to finish their conversation and get her dilemma out in the open. Luckily Maria's call only lasted a couple of minutes.

"…Okay, bye." Maria hung up the phone and turned to Liz. "Liz, I'm _so_ sorry, I really have to get home. I think my mother's about to kill Michael." She apologised. "I know we're in the middle of this, but can we finish it tomorrow? Please?"

Liz sighed and reluctantly nodded. The longer she waited to confide in someone, the more she would go over and over it in her mind. "Okay, sure. You go save your boyfriend," she managed a weak smile.

"Thanks hun," Maria bent to give her a quick hug before collecting her purse and standing up. "And we will definitely finish this tomorrow," she vowed. "I'm so sorry for standing you up like this."

"It's okay," Liz's reply fell on deaf ears as Maria rushed out of the room, cursing whoever's ingenious idea it was to leave Michael at her place, with her mother no less, while she was out.

Liz watched her leave with a heavy heart. She'd wanted some advice regarding her actions. She wanted to know if she was doing the right thing and was now feeling no better than she had been earlier.

She also hadn't had the chance to tell Maria that Max didn't know the whole story yet.

TBC…


	10. Chapter 10

**Part Ten**

It was gone midnight when Max finally emerged from the pod chamber. He'd spent the last couple of hours in there, just staring at the Granilith, hoping that it would somehow provide him with some answers.

It didn't, unfortunately, but he _had_ managed to get his thoughts in order a little better than they were earlier. After Tess had left the chamber so abruptly, he decided it would be best to sort through everything calmly and rationally and one at a time.

He found that what it all really boiled down to, could be summed up in three points:

1. Before he died, Alex had been investigating Liz.

2. Time travel was possible and Liz had somehow changed the future.

3. Something strange was happening to Tess.

As he managed to reduce the whirling mess of thoughts in his mind down to those three statements, Max realised that he really needed to talk to someone about what he and Liz were doing and also about Tess. But he felt that the whole issue of Liz and this unknown guest from the future was something he had to discuss with her, and get the truth out of her by himself.

He knew he ought to inform the others of this new development – after all it did involve their own futures, but he couldn't do that properly without knowing and comprehending the whole story.

So now the question was, whom did he talk to about the other two problems? Isabel was out, at least for now. She was too sensitive about Alex right now and he didn't want to bring everything up again unnecessarily. Liz was pretty much out as well, considering what had happened in the last few hours. The only logical choice at this moment was Michael.

But as eager as he was to solve all these problems, what he needed most at this moment was sleep. After a restless night last night and then the draining day he'd had today, his body was exhausted.

Max reached the jeep and got in with a sigh. Putting the vehicle in gear, he gave the high rocks one last glance before driving off towards home and the nice comfortable bed waiting for him.

* * *

Michael was rudely awakened the next morning by the sounds of a loud argument coming from his next-door neighbours. The young couple had moved in a few months ago and, although they seemed nice enough at first, they had now taken to engaging in loud, angry rows in the early hours of the morning.

Slowly opening one eye, Michael glanced quickly at the alarm clock by his bed, before groaning and pulling a pillow over his head. 8.30am; no one should be awake at this unearthly hour of the day.

Only a few seconds passed before the pillow was thrown to one side to reveal him lying on his back. He let out a frustrated grunt; there would be no getting back to sleep this morning.

His mind travelled back to the previous evening. He couldn't believe Maria, his usually kind and loving girlfriend, had ditched him for her best friend on a Saturday night. Leaving him at her place, alone with her mother, no less!

Okay, if he was honest, he hadn't really minded that much; you know, if Liz was having a problem and needed a friend, who was he to stop Maria from going to help her? No, his problem was with the fact that he'd been forced to make uncomfortable small talk with Amy Deluca, without the presence of his girlfriend to ease the tension.

While it was true that Ms. Deluca had given him her blessing to be with Maria, I had been obvious that she'd only been willing to finally accept him for her daughter's benefit. Unfortunately, when he'd informed Maria of this little development, she'd immediately come to the conclusion that her mother and her boyfriend were becoming fast friends and had insisted he stay and keep her mom company while she was out.

Big mistake.

They'd managed to make it through a whole twelve minutes before Michael had unintentionally put his foot in his mouth and before he knew it, the tension in the room had skyrocketed and he had no idea how to fix it. So finally, out of desperation, he'd called Maria and practically begged her to come back. He couldn't take it anymore.

Once Maria had got home, diffused the situation and he had apologised to her for making her come back, she just smiled and quietly berated herself for hoping that he and her mom might finally get along. Then she kissed him sweetly and sent him on his way.

He'd been tempted to persuade her to come back with him, but he knew he shouldn't. Although they'd been getting very close recently, he knew Maria was not quite ready for anything more and he didn't even want to consider Amy's reaction to Maria spending the night in his apartment.

So he'd returned home alone and, with a sigh of annoyance over the whole situation, he fell into bed.

Now, nine hours later, he was lying on the bed, his hands behind his head, trying to come up with ways to impress Ms. Deluca and to make her like him. He snorted at himself, since when did he worry about what Amy Deluca thought of him?

His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. Another peek at the clock told him that more than thirty minutes had passed. Grudgingly, he got out to bed and, running a hand through his hair, made his way to the door. Maybe it was Maria, here to apologise for last night and offering to make it up to him. A smile crept across his face at that thought.

He pulled open the door enthusiastically, only to find…

"Max." His smile dropped; Max being here this early on a Sunday morning couldn't be good.

"Hey, Michael," Max shuffled slightly uncomfortably on the other side of the threshold. "I need to talk to you. Can I come in?"

Michael just raised an eyebrow and moved aside to let him through.

"So, what's up, Max?" he asked tiredly as he watched the former alien king paced back and forth across his living room. "'Cos ya know...I was asleep."

Max's head snapped towards him as if he'd just realised where he was at this time in the morning. He sighed, "Sorry, Michael, it's just…There's a lot going on right now, and…" He made eye contact with his friend, "I need your help," he stated.

Michael could see the seriousness in his gaze and immediately sat up straight, giving him his full attention. "What's wrong, Max?"

Max took a seat on his friends couch and began, "You know what Liz said at the Whitman's the other day, about Alex's death not being an accident, but that he was murdered?"

Michael just nodded, not sure whether he should say anything at this point.

"Well, I thought about what she said and I told her I'd help her find out what really happened," he winced as he waited for Michael's response to that.

"What?" And there it was. "Max, what are you thinking? Of course it was accident, how can you even consider anything else?" Michael's eyes were blazing.

"Liz said that I didn't want to think that because it would mean that I was responsible, remember? Well, she was right. That's exactly how I felt."

"But, Max? _Murder_?"

"I know, I don't want to think it either, but you have to admit that what Liz suggested could be true: that someone used Alex to get to us," he said.

For a second, Michael looked like he was going to deny the possibility flat out. Instead, he sank down onto the couch next to Max and let out a defeated sigh.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he confessed. He turned his head towards his friend, "But I don't want to believe it."

"Me either," said Max.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Michael spoke again.

"So, have you found anything yet?"

Max nodded, "Liz and I went over to the Whitman's yesterday to see if there were any clues in Alex's room. We found a file on his laptop, but –" he paused.

"But what, Max? What did you find?" Michael asked impatiently.

Max ran a hand over his face. "We don't understand why, but it seems that Alex was conducting some kind of investigation. On Liz," he clarified.

"Liz?" Michael brow furrowed in confusion.

"We don't know why," he answered the silent question. "That's what I'm trying to figure out, but I'm not having any luck."

"So what do you want _me_ do about it?" Michael wasn't clear on Max's reason for telling him all this.

"There's something else," said Max, glancing over at Michael.

"Something else," Michael stated flatly.

"It's about Tess."

Michael braced himself; he really wasn't in the mood to hear about Max's blossoming relationship with the other alien. He didn't care if she was technically one of them, he still didn't completely trust her.

"Look, I know you don't really get on with her, but there's something wrong with her. I saw her last night and she told me she's been experiencing these strange moments, like loss of time and memories, and she has no idea why. Michael, we need to help her to figure out what's going on here."

Michael had been sitting quietly, absorbing the information when realisation struck. Of course!

"Max, don't you see what's going on here? It's Tess! I didn't trust her from the start, and with good reason too!"

"Michael, what are you talking about?"

"Haven't you figured it out yet? It's so obvious, I can't believe I didn't see it before," Michael rose quickly from the couch and began pacing the length of the room impatiently.

Max watched him, bewildered. "Michael, stop," he said firmly. It took only a moment for the pacing to cease. "What's going on?"

"Max, think about it. Who can manipulate people's thoughts and memories? Who would want Liz out of the way so she can have you all to herself? Tess. _She_ did this. Whatever happened to Alex, I'm telling you, Max, it's her fault."

"But, that can't be," Max didn't want to believe that. "Michael, _Tess_ is the one who's losing memories here. How could she have done anything?"

"Don't you get it? It's a cover; it has to be. If we believe that something's happening to her too, then why would we accuse her of anything? It's the perfect excuse."

Max considered this for a moment, but wasn't quite ready to believe his friend's theory just yet. "But what about what we found at Alex's? The file on Liz? You know, it suggested that she could be working against us. Where did _that_ come from?"

Michael shot him a look that clearly said 'how stupid can you get?', "Max, did you even consider the possibility that that file is a set-up, that someone is trying to make Liz the bad guy here?" he exclaimed. "Look, Maxwell, I know you and Liz haven't exactly been seeing eye-to-eye lately and that you and Tess have got some kind of quasi-relationship going on, but are you really going to side with your alien ex-wife on this?"

That made Max stop. Could it have been Tess? The file, Alex, all of it? He had to admit that Michael's theory at least made _some _sense, but there was still a part of him that didn't truly believe that Tess could have done something like that.

"Michael, I…I just don't know anymore. I don't know what to do," his face fell as he remembered the mess his life was currently in.

"Well, I do," stated Michael firmly. "I'm going over to Valenti's today and when the house is empty, I'm going to find out exactly what that bitch is hiding!"

"Michael, I really don't think going through her stuff is–" he was cut off.

"No, Max. You're not going to order me around this time. I'm going and that's final," he marched toward the bedroom, too pissed off to do anything else. "You can see yourself out," he stated, before entering his bedroom and shutting the door firmly behind him, leaving a perplexed Max alone in the living room.

* * *

Back in the small bungalow on the other side of town, a body was just beginning to stir. For the first few seconds after waking, life seemed to be back to normal, but then the same dreadful feeling from the day before washed over them.

How could they continue on like this? Always looking over their shoulder, praying that nothing odd would happen today.

They had tried talking to someone else about all of this, but that hadn't helped, the world was still as confusing and scary as it had been before.

They had no clues, no leads to indicate what was going on. Well, that wasn't completely true. There was one thing that was as confusing as everything else: the fact that the first thing that came to mind when they awoke in this small room each morning was Liz Parker.

_TBC…_


	11. Chapter 11

**Part Eleven**

Max left Michael's apartment block with an uneasy sensation in his chest. What had he just done? He had not anticipated Michael flying off the handle like that and now he was going to be snooping through Tess's personal belongings.

Oh well, at least Isabel hadn't been mad at him for getting in so late last night. In fact she had been surprisingly chipper at breakfast this morning. He wondered what had happened in the last few hours to cause such a drastic change in her mood. Maybe their conversation yesterday had helped. It would be good for to get away from Roswell for a while and although he knew she was hesitant to leave him and Michael for any length of time and he would really miss her, it _could_ help her in the end.

A smile flickered across his face at the thought of his sister. She was actually the one good, consistent presence in his life right now (apart from their parents of course, but they still didn't know everything about them) and he knew they would always be there for each other, no matter what.

His musings were halted abruptly, when something bumped into him from behind. Max spun round quickly, ready to face whatever had hit him, only to find that he had obviously gotten in the way of a young teenage boy running out of the Crashdown doors and across the street to his friends.

Wait, the Crashdown?

He hadn't even realised he'd been walking this way; it wasn't actually on route from Michael's place to his house. He inwardly rolled his eyes at himself for his apparent inability to stay away from this place.

Nevertheless, since he was here…

Max pulled open the door to the café and swiftly took a seat at his usual booth. Despite the fact that he was slightly mad at her for her inadequate explanation last night, part of him was hoping to see Liz here this morning, but as he slid into his seat he remembered that before her incredible confession last night, she'd mentioned that she and her mom were going to visit relatives in Las Cruces today.

Under the guise of looking inconspicuous and like just any normal customer, he grabbed a menu and scanned over it, even though he already knew exactly what he was going to order.

"Welcome to the Crashdown, may I take your order?"

He looked up in surprise. It was Maria. So much for not being noticed today.

She smirked, "Can't seem to stay away, huh?" When he just grinned sheepishly, she added, "Liz isn't here, you know. She's out of town."

Max sighed. "Yeah, I know," he replied, not really wanting to get into the subject of Liz with her. Luckily, she changed the subject.

"Hey, Max, have you seen Michael yet today? I tried calling him just now, but he's not picking up," her brow furrowed in concern. "I hope he's not mad at me," she said.

When Max raised his eyebrows in question, she elaborated. "I kinda left him at home alone with my mom last night. He wasn't exactly happy with me."

Max grinned again, "So that's what it was!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, I've seen him; I stopped by his place earlier to discuss something with him, but he practically bit my head off," he explained. "I thought maybe he was mad at me, but obviously not," he smirked. "So why _did_ you leave him there?"

Maria looked down, slightly uncomfortable. "Oh, I um," She decided to just spit it out. "I got a call from Liz, she needed someone to talk to," she said meaningfully.

Max understood and dropped his gaze back down to the menu in his hands. "Oh."

"Yeah, she told me what happened, that you discovered something about Alex…"

Max raised his eyes to her once again, "Yeah, we did, but we don't know what it means yet."

Maria nodded; she was going to have to get the whole story about that. She'd left in such a hurry last night, she hadn't learned what it was they'd found. She broached the next subject carefully, "She also told me about…" she trailed off; hoping Max would know what she was talking about.

"Her visitor from the future?" he supplied quietly.

"Yeah."

Maria glanced around the restaurant. It was quiet now, so she slid into the seat opposite Max and leaned in towards him.

"So, now you know, huh?"

Max was confused, "What? You already knew about this?" he questioned. "How?"

"Well, she needed someone to talk to about it and when I heard about the thing with Kyle, I kinda forced it out of her."

Max froze. Kyle? What did _Kyle _have to do with this? He was about to question her statement, but decided against it. Liz clearly hadn't told _him _everything, but she'd obviously confided it in Maria.

"I'm glad she finally told you, you know. It was so hard for her to deal with everything afterwards," Maria continued, oblivious to Max's confusion. Obviously there was much more to this story than Liz had alluded to. He was so busy contemplating what that could mean that he missed the first part of Maria's next sentence.

"…and everything she gave up for you," she finished. Max's ears perked up and he leaned in closer to Liz's best friend.

"Gave up for me? What do you mean, Maria?"

It was Maria's turn to look bewildered for a moment, before realisation hit…

Oh, God! Liz hadn't told him the whole story!

Maria closed her eyes in dismay. That was what Liz had been trying to tell her last night before she ran off!

"I'm guessing she exactly didn't tell you everything, then?" she asked and Max shook his head. "Look, I think maybe you should speak to Liz about this," she suggested.

"I tried, Maria! She wouldn't talk to me!" he exclaimed.

"I still think you should…"

"No! If you know something, Maria, if you know she's keeping something from me, then I think I deserve to know what it is."

She sighed in defeat. This was not going to be easy. Why couldn't Liz have just told him the truth, instead of trying to protect everyone once again?

"Okay, Max. But not here, okay?" she glanced at the clock on the wall. "Look, I get off in half an hour. I'll meet you here, and we'll go somewhere to talk, okay?"

Max nodded and she stood up. Putting on a professional air, she asked, "So, what can I get you?"

"Just some space fries and a cherry coke, thanks, Maria." He didn't feel particularly hungry anymore.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, he and Maria were speeding down the freeway in the Jetta. They needed to have this discussion somewhere quiet, somewhere away from the café, so Max suggested going to one of the small clearings in Frazier Woods where there was little chance of being interrupted.

Max let out a sigh of relief when Maria pulled into the clearing and stopped the car. However, his gaze remained fixed on the trees outside the window. He had been going crazy the last three quarters of an hour, his mind full of questions: What was Liz not telling him? Why had she felt she couldn't confide in him? What did Maria mean by 'everything she gave up for you'? And what exactly did her little tryst with Kyle have to do with it?

"Okay, Max," she turned to him. "Why don't you tell me what you already know, and then we can go from there?"

He nodded, but continued to stare out of the window.

"Well, she told me that a few months ago, someone visited her from fourteen years in the future and told her that the world was coming to the end. She had to do something to change the future and stop our enemies from taking over the world. She also believed that it was her fault that Alex died because he was alive in that future."

"That's it?" Maria was surprised.

"That's it," he confirmed. He looked at her expectantly, "So, Maria, are you going to tell me what really happened?"

"Well, I did promise Liz that I wouldn't but you deserve to know the truth. I even tried to get Liz to tell you herself, but she wouldn't listen to me. She truly believed that if anyone else found out, there could be a danger that the future would play out as it did before," she explained.

Max nodded in understanding, but waited for Maria to continue.

She took a deep breath, bracing herself for his reaction. "Okay, here we go. Max, what Liz didn't tell you was that her visitor from the future was you."

What? Max whirled round in his seat to face her properly.

"Me?" he almost squeaked. "As in me? Aged…" he did a quick calculation in his head. "Thirty-one?"

She nodded.

"But…why? And what did she have to do to change the future?"

"Okay, I'm just gonna start from the beginning here. The night he…you came here from the future, I dragged Liz and Alex to my Mom's psychic Madam Vivien in Hondo."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Max couldn't help rolling his eyes at the thought.

"Hey, I saw that!" she admonished, but then turned serious again. "Anyway, she told Liz that the guy in her life was special, a leader, and that he would choose her, choose _love_ over his destiny," she looked at him meaningfully. "She told her that she would marry her true love."

She watched as Max took his in, a small optimistic glimmer visible in his eyes. But she had to continue.

"Liz told me that when she got home, she stood in front of the mirror, reciting her wedding vows," she rolled her eyes, but Max had to smile at the thought of Liz becoming his wife. "But the next thing she knew, there was a flash of light and someone that looked like _you_ appeared at the window."

Max took that in.

"Liz didn't believe it at first, she thought that he was a shape-shifter or something, but he knew things, Max. Like the fact that the present you was at that moment, standing in the alley behind the Crashdown, about to sing to her in Spanish,"

Max lifted a hand to his face at the memory of that night, "Oh my God, I can't believe she told you about that!"

"Well, she did and in case you don't believe that her visitor really was you, I also happen to know that you spent a whole week learning the lyrics from Mr. Delgado."

Max lowered his hand in amazement. "I never told anyone about that, Maria. I can't believe that another version of me was there that night and I didn't even know about it," he said and then paused, collecting his thoughts. "So what did I…he say to her about the future?" he asked, although he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.

"He said that the world was coming to an end because you guys couldn't defeat the enemies and that the reason you couldn't, was because Tess wasn't with you. She'd left Roswell years before." she explained. "The Royal Four, the four-square had to be complete in order for you to win. Without Tess, it just wasn't possible."

Max was beginning to understand. "So, Liz had to make sure that Tess stayed in Roswell. How? I mean, what did she do?"

Maria sighed. "This is where it gets complicated. Tess left because she couldn't be with you. And she couldn't be with you because you and Liz got back together."

She watched as Max's eyes lit up with what she could only describe as hope and she hated that she was about to shatter that hope. "He told Liz that you and Tess had to be together to save the world and that she had to make that happen," she continued. Maria closed her eyes briefly before dropping the bombshell. She had to make you fall out of love with her."

Max was completely silent for a few seconds, before...

"Oh my God, I can't believe this!" he cried. "That's what it was all about? When she tried to set me up with Tess? When she told me she didn't want to die for me?" his eyes were stinging with unshed tears.

Maria nodded. "And Kyle."

"Kyle?" he asked, his heart skipping a beat. Dare he hope?

"Max, Liz didn't sleep with Kyle. It was all a set up."

Max felt something close to relief wash over him. "What?"

"The night of the Gomez concert, she knew you would be coming by to persuade her to go with you and, since none of her previous efforts had worked, making you think she'd slept with someone else was the only thing she could think of to make you hate her."

Max absorbed her words. "But I could never hate her, Maria." He just couldn't believe that he'd been right all along when he wouldn't accept that Liz really had slept with Kyle.

"Maybe not," she replied. "But you were angry enough that it worked. Your future self disappeared. He ceased to exist and that future was no more."

Max took that in. All this time, he had resented Liz for not giving him a chance, for not believing in their love, when in reality she had selflessly given up her future happiness and her future relationship with him to save the world!

He knew he shouldn't ask, it would only make things harder, but he had to know. "You said Liz and I got back together in the other timeline. What would have happened if Liz hadn't changed the future?"

Maria paused. "Are you sure you want to know, Max?"

He nodded.

"That night you saw Liz with Kyle, the night of Gomez? That was the night you would have first, you know, done the deed," she wiggled her eyebrows as she said this. Max took in a sharp breath at this statement. He felt his eyes welling up again, but he forced himself to speak.

"We made love?" he asked. At her nod, he continued, "And after that, we were together?"

Maria nodded.

"Did we…get married?" he wasn't sure if he dared hope.

"Yeah, you did."

"How? When?" he was eager now.

"Max, I don't really know all the details. I think this is something you should discuss with Liz."

He agreed reluctantly. After all, he was going to have to talk to her about all that Maria had just told him. This was all so overwhelming. On the one hand, he was somewhat angry that Liz had not come to him about this when it happened; maybe then they could have worked something out, something that didn't involve her trying to make him hate her. But on the other hand, he was so proud of her. For putting him and everyone else first, above her own happiness and for saving their lives. And maybe now that he finally knew the truth they could work at rebuilding the trust between them.

Max suddenly couldn't wait until Liz got back from Las Cruces and he could talk to her properly.

TBC…


	12. Chapter 12

**Part Twelve**

Michael had stationed himself outside the Valenti residence at 10 am and had been watching the building since then. He'd already seen Valenti and Kyle driving off about 10.30, discussing how many fish they were going to catch down at the river today. Now he was just waiting for Tess to leave.

He glanced down at his watch for what must have been the twentieth time today. 1:14 pm. Surely Tess would have somewhere to go soon, she couldn't stay at home all day; it was the weekend, for God's sake!

It was another half an hour before Michael could finally get on with finding what he came for. Tess finally exited the house and got into her white jeep. She was talking on her cell phone, to Isabel, it seemed. They appeared to be arranging to go shopping at the mall.

Good. That meant he would have enough time to go through her room and he'd heard Kyle talking once about the fishing trips he and his father took together; they'd be lucky if they made it home before dark.

He waited until Tess had gone down the road and round the corner before he made his move. He crept round to the back, where he knew Kyle's room (well, Tess' room now) was. He made his way carefully to the bedroom window and used his powers to open it silently.

Once inside the room, he wasted no time in beginning his search for something, _anything_ that might clue him in on Tess' true intentions.

After a good hour of rummaging through drawers and cupboards, Michael had discovered absolutely nothing and as much as he didn't want to, he was just about ready to concede that perhaps Max had been right after all.

But something suddenly caught his eye. There on the floor, concealed within a pile of girly magazines that he hadn't thought were worth going through, was a thin, dark blue, leather-bound book. Bending down to retrieve it, Michael suddenly realised what it was.

A journal.

As he cautiously opened it to the first page, he realised something else.

It didn't belong to Tess Harding.

* * *

Liz spent the entire car ride back to Roswell from Las Cruces staring out of the window. But she wasn't paying any attention to the passing scenery; her mind was too focused on how she was going to continue working with Max without revealing Future Max's identity to him. She could tell that Max had barely bought her explanation last night and of course he would want, no _need _to know what she'd been holding back from him, hell, if she'd been in his shoes last night, she would have flat out insisted that her tell her the truth and would not have backed down until she got it.

Liz knew that sooner or later he would come knocking on her door, demanding answers. The problem was, she didn't know if she would be ready to give them.

It was dark when the Parker's finally pulled up at the Crashdown. Despite everything, Liz had actually had a good day; it had been fun spending time with her cousins and, as they were leaving her aunt's house, she realised that she'd barely had time to think about Max, or anything else all day. However, once she'd gotten into her parents' car and they drove away, it all came flooding back to her.

It was still early when they got home, but the minute they arrived, Liz locked herself away in her room, giving her parents the excuse that she had a ton of homework to finish by the morning, when in actual fact, it had been complete since Friday.

Out on her balcony, Liz lay back on the chaise longue and gazed up at the stars. She usually found that observing the universe relaxed and calmed her and enabled her to think. Tonight however, she just couldn't seem to focus. On top of worrying how the hell she was going to deal with Max the next time he saw him, there was also this nagging feeling about the files they had discovered the day before. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was preventing her from believing that this was all a mistake, that Alex hadn't really known what he was doing when he created that document about her.

She didn't know how long she had been lying there with her face turned towards the stars, when the sudden noise startled her. She promptly sat up, her hand flying up to cover her heart. She'd gotten so used to the quiet of the balcony that the unexpected sound of something hitting metal almost scared the life out of her. Her heart was beating fast and she had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself.

It sounded like the disturbance had come from the alley below the balcony. She was just about to get up and go check it out when the source of the noise appeared at the top of her ladder.

She let out a sigh of relief. "Max!" she exclaimed. "You scared me to death! What are you doing here?"

He didn't say anything at first, just stared at her, his gaze unnerving; but then he swiftly clambered over the wall and landed on the solid ground a few feet from her. At the same time, Liz swung her legs off the chair and stood up, intending to greet him.

She didn't get a chance to say anything however, because barely a second later Max had crossed the small space between them, coming to stand right in front of her. She stood there dumbly, watching as his face moved closer to her. She gasped when he leant down and captured her lips with his.

For a second she was so stunned that she could only stand there, her arms at her side while he tenderly caressed and nipped at her mouth. But then realisation set in.

Max was here and he was kissing her and it was everything she'd dreamed about for the last few months.

Suddenly she couldn't hold back any longer and, as her arms came up to loop around his neck, holding him to her tightly, she responded to him eagerly. Her head was spinning and the feel of Max's hand moving in small circles over her lower back as the other moved up to cup her neck, caused tingles to shoot all through her body.

This was heaven and although she and Max weren't sharing flashes along with their kisses, Liz found herself overwhelmed with the sensations of love and awe radiating from him, which were coming through in his gentle caresses.

God, could it really be true? Was it possible that Max still had feelings for her, still loved her?

When he'd begun climbing the ladder to Liz's balcony behind the Crashdown just a few minutes ago, Max had certainly not intended to just go to her without a word and attack her like he had just done barely five minutes ago. But, when he'd reached the top of the ladder, the sight of her sat there on the chaise longue, coupled with the memory of what Maria had revealed to him that afternoon simply mesmerised him.

All he could think about was how brave she'd been through all of this. Moreover, how much it must have hurt her to know that they could have been together but, because of something that _he'd_ asked her to do, she'd had to give that possibility up forever; for his safety, for the safety of Michael and Isabel and Tess and the entire world.

And at that moment, his heart had swelled with so much love for her that he could do only one thing: take her in his arms and show her exactly how much he still loved her. For the first few seconds after his lips touched hers, he wondered if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life. Here he was, pouring his heart and soul into this kiss and Liz was just standing there, completely still, barely moving a muscle.

However, when he decided it would be best if he just pulled away and apologised profusely for his actions, he felt Liz begin to respond. His heart soared as her arms wrapped around his neck to pull him close to her and he finally felt her lips move against his, her mouth parting slightly to let him in. He mustered up enough courage then, to bring his hand up to support her neck, his fingers delicately caressing the soft, warm skin of the back of her neck and tangling in her silky hair.

A small moan escaped from her lips into his at the movements of his hands and it was then that he finally realised that this was meant to be, that now he had tasted her one more time, he wouldn't be able to continue on with his life as he had done these past few months: without her.

With that thought in mind, he reluctantly pulled away from her, detaching his lips from hers. He opened his eyes to gaze down at her, only to find that she was already staring up at him, both surprise and awe evident in her expression.

"Max…?" Liz questioned breathlessly. Her mind was in a state of confusion. What had suddenly possessed him to kiss her out of the blue like that? Not that she minded, of course, but considering the state of their 'relationship' of late, his actions were completely unexpected.

"I just…I…" Max could barely form a coherent thought. _This what happens when I'm around her! _He mentally shook his head to clear it of the haziness that he was now feeling. "Sorry, I just couldn't help myself," he admitted shyly. "It's just…I saw you standing there and everything fell into place; it just felt like the right thing to do and… I'm sorry," he finished helplessly.

Liz smiled at his babbling. "Why do I get the feeling that there's something you're not telling me?"

"You're right," he agreed and then gestured to the seat behind them "Why don't we sit down?"

Liz nodded and took a seat at the head of the chaise, allowing enough room for Max to settle on the end and face her. They sat in silence for a few moments before Max spoke.

"I spoke to Maria today," he said softly.

It took Liz a minute to read between the lines of his statement, but then the meaning of his words hit her.

"Oh," she replied, not knowing what else she could say.

From her expression, Max knew that she understood what that meant, but he clarified it anyway. "She told me what really happened; what you had to go through; what you did for me, for all of _us_," he emphasised.

He could see her face fall; the implications of the fact that he now knew the truth and that she'd been lying to him all this time.

"Liz," he said, gently lifting her chin so she could look at him, "I'm not angry with you. Well, okay that's not entirely true; at first I was little angry that you felt you couldn't come to me about this, but I'm not now. If anything, I'm proud of you," he stated, an admiring glint in his eyes.

At her look of wonder and disbelief at his words, he attempted to explain. "Liz, you gave up your hopes and dreams, your future, _our_ future, to save me and Michael and Isabel and even Tess. You put _us_ first, above your own happiness and that just proves to me what a wonderful, incredible person you are. I'm not sure I would have been strong enough to give you up if the situation was reversed."

Liz gazed at him in wonder, as tears threatened to roll down her cheeks. "Max, I…"

Whatever she'd been about to say was cut off as Max reached up and tenderly brushed away the few stray tears that had now escaped from her eyes. She couldn't believe that it was all out in the open, that he finally knew the truth. Right at this moment, she was so happy. She just wanted to bask in the warmth she could feel coming from Max and forget about the fact that him knowing the truth still didn't mean they could be together now.

Fortunately, she didn't have a chance to dwell on that thought as Max uttered a single sentence that brought her mind straight back to the present.

"So, Maria told me that we got married in that other future…?" it came out as a question, although he already knew it was true.

"Yeah," she said wistfully. "We eloped."

Max practically did a double take. "We eloped?"

She nodded, "When we were nineteen," she confirmed.

"Nineteen…" he echoed. "Wow."

"We went to Vegas, to the Elvis Chapel," continued Liz.

"The Elvis…" Max repeated again. "Wait! The other week, when we were there…and I had that strange flash of us…like we were getting married in Vegas…" he left the sentence hanging, but Liz understood and nodded.

"It really happened, Max. At least, it did in _his_ life."

"Wow…" he said again. "And we were together, we were married…until –"

"The end of the world," she confirmed.

A brief look of apprehension crossed his face. "Happily, I hope," he asked cautiously.

"Yes, happily. We were happy, Max"

"God, how did he manage to give that up?" he wondered.

"I don't think it was easy for him," said Liz. "But he had to. Isabel had died a few days earlier and he told me that right before he left, he held Michael in his arms. He was dead too," she confessed. "I think we were the only ones left, Max."

Max was beginning to understand the severity of the whole situation and why Liz kept it to herself all this time; she couldn't risk the same thing happening again. But maybe since the two of them hadn't got back together that night and Tess hadn't left town, the future had been changed enough that the end of the world would not occur. He would make sure that Tess did not leave Roswell, that the four-square remained intact and that they would be prepared for any possible attacks by their enemies.

He decided there and then, that it was time for a new start. He was not going to let Liz go again; he didn't think he could handle being without her any longer and this time it would be forever, he would make sure of it.

"Liz, I think I understand a little better now why you kept all of this to yourself for this long and why you had to give me up, but you know what? I can't do this any longer." A look of hurt appeared on her face and Max was quick to clarify his statement. "I mean, I can't go on being just friends with you, Liz. I need more."

"But, Tess…and the future…we can't be together, Max. No matter how much we might want it," she protested.

"Do you really think it still matters, Liz? We didn't make love that night of the concert; Tess didn't leave town; we already know about the future threat. I think the future's been changed enough now that it won't happen again, don't you?"

Liz didn't want to believe it could be that simple. She shook her head, "We don't know that, Max."

"No, the end of the world is not going to happen. I won't let it," he said determinedly, while grasping her hands in his. "Have faith in me; in us. Please, Liz…" he begged.

The combination of the lost little boy expression on his face and the determination clearly evident in his words melted the last wall around Liz's heart. Her gaze softened and she found herself nodding.

"Okay," she whispered, so softly that Max only just caught it. But when he did, a huge grin quickly spread across his face and he pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you," he whispered into the side of her neck. "I promise you won't regret this," he swore as he held her tight.

Liz held him to her in silence for several minutes before she pulled back to look into his eyes.

"So, we're really gonna do this? We're back together again?" She just wanted to be sure.

"Yes, we're back together," he smiled and nodded. "And now that we've got that out of the way, can I kiss you?" he asked.

Liz let slip a small giggle. "I thought you already had!"

"Well, okay I have, but we weren't actually together then," he teased.

"Oh, well in that case, go right ahead," she grinned.

Max closed his eyes as he lowered his head towards her once again; ready to savour the sweet taste of her lips and the faint scent of her fragrant perfume. Their lips were just a hair's breadth apart, when they were interrupted by the unusually loud sound of his cell phone. He let out a frustrated sigh and opened his eyes, but made now move to answer it.

"Don't you think maybe you should answer it, Max?" came Liz's amused voice, seemingly out of nowhere.

With a defeated nod, he reluctantly pulled away from her and reached into his pocket to retrieve the phone.

"Yes?" he spoke into it harshly, quickly regretting his impatient tone when he heard the person on the other end.

"Where are you? I've been looking for you all night!" there was urgency in Michael's voice. "I just got back from Tess'. Maxwell, we've got a problem."

_TBC…_


	13. Chapter 13

**Part Thirteen**

Twenty minutes later, Max found himself back at Michael's place. He felt awful leaving Liz like he had, especially when they'd just worked things out and were starting afresh; but at the same time, if what Michael had found was nearly as important as he'd made it out to be, he knew he had to go.

At first, he'd planned to bring Liz with him. After all, she was the one that started this whole investigation, but when he had mentioned it to Michael he'd been adamant that Max should come alone. That, in itself, was worrying to Max because, if it was best that Liz wasn't around to hear what Michael had to say, then that most likely implied that he'd discovered something that implicated her in all of this, just as Alex's file had suggested.

Thus, he'd apologised guiltily to her, promised he'd make it up to her and gave her a brief, but emotion-filled kiss before he left. He hated having to leave her out of this, but until he knew exactly what they were dealing with, maybe it was for the best.

"So, what's this all about, Michael?" he asked as his friend re-emerged from his room carrying a book of some kind.

Michael held up the object in his hands. "This, Max."

"And what is…this exactly?"

"This is what I found in Tess' bedroom," replied Michael, almost smugly. "You wanna know what it is? It's a diary, well a journal, actually."

Now he had Max's full attention. "A journal?" he questioned, an awful feeling flooding over him. It couldn't be _Liz's_ journal. Could it?

But Michael was already ahead of him. "I know what you're thinking Maxwell, and no, it's not Liz's. But it's not Tess' either," he clarified.

"So that means…"

He nodded grimly, "It's Alex's."

"And…?" Max was getting impatient with Michael's apparent inability to get to the point.

"I don't really know how to say this, Max…"

Max frowned, "What is it?" he sounded concerned.

Michael couldn't look him in the eye. "I think Liz might actually be involved in this after all," he rushed out.

"What? How?"

"Before Alex…you know…he was experiencing some strange things. He wrote in here," he held up the journal again. "That he would black out sometimes and when he came to, he would have no idea what happened, or why, but each time he'd have the feeling that Liz had been there with him, like she was the last thing he saw before he woke up again."

Max shook his head. "No…no, that can't be true, Michael! Liz didn't do anything and she doesn't know anything either. She told me that last night," he said. At Michael's sceptical look, he added, "and I believe her."

His response was a snort. "Of course you believe her, Maxwell, you're fucking _in love_ with girl!" he cried. Managing to calm himself down a little, he added, "Look, whether Liz had something to do with it or not, we need to find out the truth. Tomorrow, I'm going to see Tess and I'm gonna find out exactly what she knows. Are you in?"

Max sighed in defeat. Of course he would be going with him to confront Tess; he couldn't not go. He just hoped that his friend wasn't right about this.

* * *

Liz played with the food on her plate, her fork just pushing everything from one side to the other. She wasn't hungry, but had piled the food onto her plate and taken the seat in the quad to keep up the pretence that everything was fine.

But it wasn't fine, not really.

It was lunchtime and she had not seen nor heard from Max all day. She'd been disappointed when he'd had to leave her last night to talk to Michael. Especially after what they'd just shared.

She had wanted to go with him, but she also understood that sometimes things between Michael and Max just did not concern her, so she'd kissed him one more time and sent him on his way.

But then she'd found herself at a loss; all her homework was done, it was too late to invite Maria over again and she wasn't in the mood to think any more about what had happened over the last two days. So, in the end, she'd spent the remainder of the evening watching TV in the living room with her parents. A perfect family night in. Except there was so much other stuff going on in her life at the moment, that she barely noticed the cosy family atmosphere.

She had cheered up a little when, just as she'd gotten into bed the phone rang. It was Max calling to tell her goodnight and that he'd see her in the morning. It had been on the tip of her tongue to enquire about what Michael wanted, but his tone of voice suggested that he wasn't in the mood to talk about it.

But, she _hadn't_ seen Max in the morning and now, sitting alone in the quad she wondered, not for the first time today, where the hell he was and why he hadn't told her he wasn't going to be able to meet her this morning.

* * *

He could not believe Michael.

He'd just arrived at school this morning and was on his way to meet Liz at her locker, when he was grabbed by a hand and found himself being pulled roughly round the corner.

"God, Michael! What are you doing?" he cried, more than annoyed with his friend.

"You said you were coming with me to see Tess, so let's go!"

"What, Now? Michael, it's Monday morning," he glanced around quickly, "And in case it escaped your attention, we're currently at school, we can't just go running off looking for Tess! Can't this wait until tonight?" he asked.

"Look, Max, I can't make it tonight, I have to work," he hissed. "I'm doing this now, so you have a choice to make. You can either cut class to find out what's really going on, or you can stay here and go to your lessons like a good little boy. So, what's it gonna be?"

As much as he hated Michael's idea, there was no way he was just going to stand by while Michael went off to say God-knows-what to Tess.

"Fine," he replied and hoisted his bag onto his shoulder properly. "Let's go." He spotted Tess across the parking lot and started to move towards her, but Michael stopped him with a hand against his chest.

"No, I'll get Tess, you go wait in the jeep. I'll meet you there with her in a couple of minutes," he told him.

"But – "

"Hey, we need wheels and you've got 'em. Plus, we might need to make a quick escape so we don't get noticed," explained Michael.

Not wishing to argue with him any more, Max just sighed and shook his head, making his way back over to his jeep. He wasn't going to have a chance to tell Liz where he was; he just hoped she didn't get too mad at him later.

* * *

"I told you, I don't know anything; I'm just as confused about all this as you are!" cried Tess.

"Oh, I think you do; but you're just trying to protect yourself!" shouted Michael. It was a good thing they were out in the desert; otherwise they would have been heard.

Max gazed tiredly at the scene in front of him. Michael and Tess were facing off against each other and had been like that for the last fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, the more Michael pushed for answers from Tess, the more Tess insisted she didn't know anything and consequently, the more worked up they both became.

As much as Max wanted to find out the truth as soon as possible, this conversation (if you could even call it that) was not getting them anywhere. Maybe they needed a different approach.

"Michael, stop!" he said firmly, which caused Michael to stop glaring at Tess for a moment and glance in his direction. "This isn't the way to go about it."

Arms crossed over his chest, Michael retorted, "Well, how else do you propose we do this, Maxwell?"

Max stood from his seat on a nearby rock and, picking up his backpack, strode over to them. Putting a restraining hand on Michael's shoulder he said quietly, so Tess couldn't hear him, "Why don't you let me try this? I'll talk to her and see if she knows anything."

He didn't want to, but Michael found himself agreeing stiffly and when Max nodded his thanks and moved towards Tess, he rolled his eyes in annoyance and marched back to the jeep. He watched as Max took the other alien by the arm and led her gently towards the base of the rocks.

When he'd reached a suitable spot, Max let go of her arm and turned to face her.

"Okay, Tess, let's start from the beginning; why don't you tell me exactly what's going on and what you know and we'll go from there," he suggested.

"Max, I told you the other night, I don't know what's going on or what's happening to me. I feel like just as much a victim here as anyone else!"

Max just stared at her for a moment, trying to discern whether or not she was really telling the truth, but then he unzipped his backpack and pulled something out, holding it up for Tess to see.

"Well, what can you tell me about this then, Tess? It was in your room."

Tess' expression turned to one of shock. "W…What?" she asked shakily. "You went through my stuff?" she asked in disbelief. "No, wait, I know _you_ wouldn't do that, Max, but I do know someone else that would," she gritted out, with an angry stare in the direction of the jeep.

"Look, Tess, we're trying to find out what's going on here. Now maybe what Michael did wasn't the best idea, but he needed to know; I need to know. So can you please explain to me what you _do_ know and how Alex's journal got into your room in the first place?"

Tess stared at the volume in Max's hand for a few seconds before her bottom lip trembled and she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"I don't know, Max, okay? I don't know anything anymore!"

She could see that Max was waiting for an explanation, so she forced herself to continue.

"I told you before about these strange things happening to me that I couldn't explain. Well, they've been happening occasionally for months, but these last couple of weeks have been bad. Last week, the morning after Alex died, I woke up feeling really disorientated and when I went to get ready for the day, I found that on the floor by my bed," she pointed at the journal. "I don't know how it got there, Max, but I think someone's trying to set me up."

Max absorbed this. Tess' story was not looking good for Michael's theory. "Did you read it?" he hadn't been able to take a proper look at it himself yet, since Michael had kept it at his place last night.

She nodded miserably, "Yes," she whispered, her eyes focusing on the ground.

"What does it say?" asked Max curiously. He was eager to find out if her story matched with what Michael had told him was in the diary.

Her head snapped up, "You don't know?" she was surprised he hadn't read it cover to cover by now.

He shook his head, "I haven't had a chance to read it yet."

"Max, Alex was experiencing similar things to me; blackouts in the middle of the day, unexplained loss of time and strange blanks instead of memories," she paused for a second before continuing. "But, Max, there's something else; whenever he did wake up, his first thought was always that Liz had been there with him." She watched him to gauge his reaction.

The colour drained from his face; that was what Michael had said too. "Liz…?"

He didn't want to believe she could have had anything to do with this, but maybe this explained why Alex was investigating her. If weird and unexplainable things were happening to him, and the only thing that came to mind after them was Liz, then why _wouldn't_ he suspect that she had something to do with it?

He let out a shaky breath and lowered the journal to his side. "Tess, I…I'm sorry, okay? I know you're confused, we all are; and we're just trying to get to the bottom of this," he apologised. "I think I need to go find Liz and talk to her about this."

His mind was a complete muddle again. He had believed Liz when she'd told him that she had no idea why Alex had a file on her. They'd just gotten back together and he was finally happy again and now he didn't know _what _to think

Could she really have been lying to him this whole time?

_TBC…_


	14. Chapter 14

**Part Fourteen**

It was 3 pm when Max finally drove Tess and Michael back home and then made his way over to the Crashdown to see Liz. Before they left the desert, he'd asked Tess why she had not come to him and told him about the journal sooner, why she didn't mention her blackouts and memory loss before all of this happened. All she could come up with was that she didn't think that anyone would believe her, that they would just suspect her of making things up. Although Max had reassured her that that wouldn't have been the case, he half-wondered whether or not he would have actually believed her if she had said something.

If he was honest, right now, all he could think about was finding out what exactly was going on with Liz and he was trying to convince himself that he was wrong and Liz really had nothing to do with what happened to Alex.

When he reached the Crashdown, Max parked the jeep just outside. Instead of climbing up to the balcony, he entered the building through the main doors of the restaurant. Just as he had suspected, Liz was in the process of rushing around the café dressed in the turquoise alien-themed uniform, which, as much as it embarrassed him to admit it, he'd always found a complete turn on. Even now, when he was confused and potentially angry with her for lying to him, he still found himself practically drooling at the sight of her. He mentally slapped himself for thinking that way at a time like this before he made his way over to her.

Liz's face lit up the second she saw Max walking towards her and when he reached her side, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. He wasn't exactly prepared for her reaction to his presence, but the moment he felt her soft, warm lips graze his, he was lost. He had gone so long, too long without holding or touching her, that his heart took over and he was powerless to prevent it.

When he finally came to his senses, he pulled away from her slightly. "Liz, we're in the middle of the Crashdown, everyone is looking at us!"

"I don't care," she said, pulling his head down towards her again. He allowed himself to get tangled her embrace once again, until this time she was the one to break the kiss.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, Max, but where were you today? I thought we agreed to meet this morning and then you never showed up. What happened?"

Max glanced around at the almost full café and the many customers looking their way. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to stand you up, but something came up, something I couldn't really get out of and I wasn't able to let you know about it. Look, can we talk somewhere else? Somewhere a little more private?"

Liz glanced round apologetically, "Sorry, Max, we're really swamped here and I can't take a break right now. But I finish at six; can we talk then? Please?"

Max smiled and nodded in understanding, but inside his stomach was in knots; he wasn't sure if he would be able to wait that long to have this conversation with her.

"Sure, no problem. I should probably go find out what I missed in class today," he said sheepishly. "I'll see you at six, okay?"

He turned to leave, but was stopped by her hand on his arm. She spun him back round and planted one last kiss on his lips. It had been so long since she'd been able to kiss him that she was having trouble stopping now.

It was so great to have him back in her life again.

* * *

The four walls of this bedroom were becoming achingly familiar. Part wood, part wallpaper, these walls had become a sanctuary as of late. A lot of time had been spent in this room recently, as the need to be alone and away from prying eyes increased. The puzzling feelings of possible resurfacing memories were taking over and it had been getting more and more difficult to consider that anyone they confided in would actually believe their story and take their side in all of this.

Now the truth was out, at least as much of it as anyone knew right now and the feeling of relief was immense. Maybe the story hadn't been taken completely seriously, but at least it was out in the open now.

In the corner of the room, the tap at the sink was turned on and the feeling of cold water hitting the sensitive skin on their face was refreshing. A towel was grabbed from the hook on the wall next to the sink and used to pat the now damp skin dry. The towel was released from shaking fingers and dropped to the floor as eyes locked in the mirror.

The face staring back at her looked tired and drawn and the more she stared at her reflection, the more unfamiliar the face staring back seemed to become.

Something had been happening to her and the more she thought about it, the less sense it all made.

Right at this moment, Tess Harding hated what her life had become.

* * *

Six o'clock couldn't roll around fast enough for Max. Despite what he'd told Liz, he hadn't managed to catch up on the work he'd missed in school today. He'd gone straight home and had once again poured over the printouts from Alex's laptop and the entries in his journal. He had to admit that this whole investigation that Alex had been undertaking made a lot more sense now that he had the journal as well.

It appeared that Alex had started writing in the diary a couple of months ago, soon after he experienced the first blackouts. He'd used the book to recount what had happened on these occasions and each entry suggested the same thing: that somehow he'd had a feeling that Liz had been there with him during the time he couldn't account for. Whether or not this feeling was a memory, or just his mind playing tricks on him was another matter, one that he'd been trying to get to the bottom of before he died.

Max was torn. On the one hand, in his heart he believed that Liz was innocent in all of this. Alex was one of her best friends, why would she want to harm him? However, the words written in Alex's journal and his files suggested another story entirely; and Max had no idea what to believe.

At twenty to six, he couldn't stand the wait any longer and he left the house, with Alex's journal safely tucked inside his backpack and walked back to the Crashdown. It was still early when he got there and Liz had not yet finished her shift, so he took the liberty of waiting for her on the balcony outside her bedroom.

Liz was rather surprised when she arrived in her bedroom not ten minutes later, to find him sitting rather comfortably on the chaise longue just outside her window. But he had his back to the window and hadn't yet noticed that she was in the room, so she took the opportunity to grab a change of clothes and duck into the bathroom.

She emerged barely two minutes later to find him sitting in the exact same place, facing away from her, so this time she unlatched the window and pushed it up.

"Are you going to just sit out there all day?" she called playfully, sniggering when he jumped before turning to face her. "Come on in, Max."

"Thanks," he replied, picking up his bag. He climbed through the window and came to a stop just inside Liz's room.

Liz moved to him and slid the backpack off his shoulder letting it fall to the ground beside them. She rested her hands flat against his chest and standing on tiptoes, she leaned up to kiss him, relishing in the fact that she could now do this whenever she wanted. Max responded to her instantly, but forced himself to stop barely a minute later.

"Liz, I really have to talk to you about something," he managed to get out.

Abandoning his mouth, she chose to nuzzle his neck instead. "Can't it wait? Just a few more minutes…"

He moved his hands up to her shoulders and gently pried her away from him. Looking into her eyes, he slowly shook his head, "I'm sorry, but it really can't. It's important."

Liz stilled, mid-smile. "This is about what Michael found, isn't it?"

He nodded.

"So…?" she stepped away from him so she could look at him properly.

He took a deep breath. "Michael thought that Tess had something to do with what we're investigating, so he snuck into her house yesterday and went through her stuff," he paused.

"And?" questioned Liz.

"And he found something. It was a journal, Alex's journal, hidden in her room. So I skipped school today and went out to the desert with Michael to question her about it."

"So it was Tess? _She_ did this?" Liz was angry now.

Max paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "Okay, here's the thing," he started. "Alex and Tess had each been suffering from strange blackouts and missing periods of time that couldn't be explained. The morning after Alex died, Tess told me that she woke up and found the journal in her room. Liz, she thinks someone was trying to set her up, you know, frame her for killing Alex; making it look like she had something to do with it."

"What? Who?"

"This is where it gets strange and kind of confusing. Liz, both Alex and Tess were under the impression that _you_ were with them after they passed out," he stopped to let that sink in and waited for the reaction.

"Oh my God! Me? How could they think I had _anything_ to do with this? Alex was my best friend!" she was shocked. "Oh God, the files! Alex thought I was doing something awful to him? Like I was trying to manipulate him or something? I didn't do anything, Max!"

"I don't know what to think anymore, Liz," he said tiredly. "Part of me, a big part doesn't want to believe it either. I trust you, Liz; I _know _you. But Alex and Tess claimed that whenever they came to, they always had a vague memory of you being there with them just before they woke up."

"Max, you have to believe me on this, I don't know anything about how Alex died. I have no idea what they were talking about!" she exclaimed.

"Liz, I – "

She cut him off stalking towards him. "You don't believe me, Max? Then connect with me; share flashes with me. I'll show you that I don't know anything." She was just inches away from him now. Her hands grabbed his and brought them up to her face so that he was cradling her head in his hands. "Connect with me, Max. Please?" she said again, softly this time.

Unable to do much else, he nodded weakly and locked eyes with her. Within a couple of seconds, he felt himself being pulled into her memories.

What he saw there made him gasp.

_TBC…_


	15. Chapter 15

**Part Fifteen**

Nothing.

That's what he saw in her memories.

There was absolutely nothing in Liz's mind or her soul to indicate that she had done anything to either Alex or Tess or that she had any knowledge whatsoever of what they had experienced over the past few weeks and months. She was as much in the dark as he was.

So, what was going on? Why did Alex and Tess think that Liz was somehow responsible for this mess? Had someone been manipulating them in order to lay the blame on Liz, or even worse, was it possible that Liz's memories had also been manipulated?

Frantically, Max searched through their connection for any anomalies or discrepancies in her mind which could indicate that something wasn't right, that she'd been mindwarped or something. However, he could find none. Liz truly had nothing to do with this.

But what did that mean for their investigation?

Max prepared himself to release her head from his hands and break the connection, but before he could do so, an image flashed into his mind.

A man with long dark hair and black leather clothing; a man that looked a lot like…

Oh my God.

This was his future self. He was seeing Liz's memories of the night he came to her from the future.

Max couldn't describe the feelings that rushed through him as the images played out in his mind. He could feel everything that Liz had been feeling those few days back in October.

He felt her elation and happiness at the prospect of spending the rest of her life with him. He felt her shock at the realisation of who exactly had suddenly appeared in her room and then her confusion and need to understand exactly _how_ they had got there.

But what stood out most to him within the jumble of emotions, was the complete and utter despair Liz experienced the moment she truly understood what the future version of him was telling her and what she inevitably had to do in order to prevent the same events playing out again.

He experienced the jealousy she felt when she had to watch him and Tess together, her hope as Future Max described their wedding day followed by her sadness that she would never experience that day for herself. He sensed the conflict between her head and her heart as she forced herself to tell him that she didn't want to die for him and he felt her heart break when she realised that he had seen her with Kyle.

He saw the two of them, Liz and his future self, talking afterwards. Him telling her that watching her do what she did was the hardest thing he'd ever done and her disbelief when he suggested that maybe she try a relationship with a human.

The last image to flit across his mind was of he and Liz re-enacting their wedding dance. An old Sheryl Crow song, along with an echo of Liz's earlier words accompanied the vision,

"Don't you realise what you are to me, what you're always gonna be? You're the love of my life. Everyone else is gonna be second best. There'll never be another you."

Max felt the tears slipping down his face, as the connection between them was broken. He gazed down at Liz, finding her eyes brimming with tears too; obviously, she had shared the flashes with him. As he looked at her, his heart swelled with love and he moved his left hand slightly, allowing his fingers to trail tenderly through her hair. His right hand slid down to cup her cheek and he whispered her name as his lips descended to hers.

Both Max and Liz allowed themselves to get lost in the kiss, everything else forgotten except the flashes they'd just experienced and the knowledge that Liz was innocent in all of this.

Max was the one to pull back. He locked eyes with Liz as he spoke.

"Liz…" he used his fingers to tuck her hair behind her ears and gazed down at her lovingly. "I love you," he whispered.

Liz gasped a quick intake of breath. It wasn't the first time she'd heard him utter those words, but this time it meant so much to her. They had been apart for months, both unsure of the other's feelings and she'd feared that once Max knew the truth he would change his mind about loving her. Nevertheless, here it was, plain as day and she knew in her heart that his words were the absolute truth.

"I love you too," she returned and when he heard her confession, Max pulled her to him tightly, this time his arms wrapping around her waist as they kissed again. Before he realised what he was doing, Max had managed to manoeuvre Liz towards the bed in the middle of her room. It was only when the back of her legs hit the edge that they broke apart breathlessly and stared at each other in question.

Well in actual fact, it was Liz giving the questioning stare; Max found himself too preoccupied with the ravished appearance of her face, which in his opinion, made her look extremely sexy. His gaze travelled from the dark pools of her eyes, down over her lips and came to land on the creamy exposed skin of her neck. It looked so alluring and inviting that he couldn't help himself and he leaned down to nuzzle the soft skin there.

Max placed gentle kisses on the side of her neck, making Liz shiver in delight. She knew she ought to make him stop and she knew that they desperately needed to calm down and get their hormones under control, but as Max's tongue shot out to taste her, she was transported back to the time last year when they first experienced the flashes.

As memories of bowls of strawberries, make-out sessions in the Eraser Room and a half-naked Max in Michael's apartment washed over her, Liz found herself responding to him eagerly. Her hands slid up his chest and crept under his jacket to ease it from his broad shoulders. As the garment fell to the floor, her hands skimmed down the length of his back. When she reached the hem of his T-shirt, she let her hands slip underneath it, her fingers gently caressing his warm, bare skin.

"Liz…" whispered Max feverishly as he began kissing his way back up to her mouth. He stopped, his lips barely a millimetre away from hers, "Is this too fast? Maybe we should stop…"

Her response was to glide her hands further up under his shirt, tightening her grip on his back.

"You know what?" she whispered back. "Maybe it is, but right now, I don't care. Kiss me, Max."

Mouths fused together once again and passion escalated quickly. Liz felt Max's tongue run along her bottom lip and she willingly opened to him, his tongue sliding inside to tangle with hers.

Liz found herself being pulled flush up against him, her chest pressed to his, their thighs touching. She let out a sigh at the feel of him so close to her and her knees weakened, causing her to fall back onto the bed, pulling Max down with her.

Not releasing their grip on each other, Max and Liz moved to lie more fully on the bed. Max waved his hand and the sounds of Sheryl Crow's _I Shall Believe_ filled the room. Liz gasped and broke the kiss to gaze up at him, an awed smile on her face.

"Max…?"

He grinned and whispered, "Just wanted to create an atmosphere."

His grin was infectious and Liz found herself mirroring his expression. Then a thought occurred to her and the smile vanished from her face, "Max, are we really gonna do this? You know, _this_?" She indicated to their current position on her bed, him lying on top of her, their legs tangled together.

Max considered her for a moment, "Well, what do you want to do? I mean, we don't have to–"

She cut him off with a finger to his lips, "No! I mean, I want to, Max. I just thought maybe we're going too fast. We've only been back together a day."

"Maybe we are, but right this moment, there is nothing I want to do more than make love to you, Liz," he replied softly, his words heartfelt.

The smile returned to her face and she pulled his head towards her again, "Me too," she replied just before sealing their lips together. A second later, she pulled back again. "Wait, Max! You do, you know, have protection, don't you? Cos I don't have anything…"

"Liz, I heard what he…I said to you that night, so I know you know the answer to that one," he said, taking her hand and guiding it to the back pocket of his jeans. "It's still there."

Max shivered as Liz slid her hand into his pocket and retrieved the small square packet. He watched as she reached over to place it on the table next to the bed and then hooked her arms around his neck.

"Make love to me, Max."

* * *

Michael and Maria were curled up on the couch in his living room. The TV was on, but neither one was really paying attention to it. Maria had hunted Michael down at the Crashdown after school, demanding to know where he'd been all day and why he hadn't called her. He told her that it was complicated and had managed to placate her by telling her that if she came round to his after his shift, he would explain everything to her.

Therefore, at 8.30 pm, he sat her down on the couch and explained exactly what had happened with finding Alex's journal and confronting Tess about it. As we was telling her this, Maria realised that with all the excitement she still had not been told what it was that Liz and Max had found at Alex's, so she quizzed him about that too.

When he finished, she let out a gasp. "No, Michael, that can't be true. Liz would _never_ do anything to hurt Max! She gave up her own happiness to save his life, to save all of our lives. There's no way that she could have done something to Alex. She loved him."

Michael ran a hand through his unruly hair, "Look, Maria, I don't have all the answers here. No one does right now. I'm just telling you what I know, what Tess said and what Alex wrote in that journal," he stopped. "Wait a minute. What do you mean, Liz gave up her happiness to save our lives?"

Oops.

Maria closed her eyes in dismay and covered her mouth with her hand, "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Just forget it."

He frowned. "No, Maria. Do tell," he demanded.

She sighed and began the story of Future Max's visit. _So much for promising never to tell anyone about this_, she thought.

Thirty minutes later, they were still sitting in the same positions on the couch. Michael seemed to be unable to say anything other than, "Wow."

"So you see," Maria finished, "There is no way Liz could have betrayed Max, or any of us. Not after what she did for us."

Michael let out a tired sigh. "I don't understand, Maria. How it is that both Alex and Tess thought she had something to do with their blackouts?"

"I don't know, Michael. That's what we need to find out," she said, turning to him and curling up at his side.

They sat in contemplative silence, the TV on quietly in the background, until a frantic knocking at the door interrupted the quiet. Michael shot Maria a puzzled glance before getting up and going to answer the door.

It was Isabel, a worried look on her face. "Are you guys alright?" she asked anxiously.

Michael looked over to Maria and then turned back to Isabel. "Yeah, we're fine. What's going on?"

"I don't know, Michael, but something's not right. I just got this awful feeling, like something's about to happen. Something alien."

* * *

Max and Liz were sleeping peacefully together in Liz's bed. Just a sheet covered their lower bodies, where their legs were intimately tangled together, leaving their torsos bare. Her head was resting on his shoulder, her arm splayed across his chest and Max's arm was around her, holding her to his side.

Suddenly, something ran through Liz's body, making it jerk. Her eyes flew open and she let out a gasp. As quickly as it has happened, the feeling disappeared and she relaxed against Max once again, her eyes drifting closed.

Barely five minutes later, Liz's eyes opened again slowly, fluttering slightly as they focused on her surroundings. She looked up at Max's sleeping face and traced his cheek with her fingers.

"Soon, my love," she whispered.

She let her hand drop from his face and turned to her side, facing away from him.

A grin spread across her face and a strange glint appeared in her purple-tinted eyes.

TBC…


	16. Chapter 16

**Part Sixteen**

Max opened his eyes sleepily, the sun shining through the thin curtains having woken him. He wondered for a moment where he was, but as he glanced down at the warm body sleeping next to him, the previous night's events came flooding back.

A contented grin spread across his face as he remembered the wonderful and new experience they'd shared with each other just a few hours ago. Unconsciously, his arm squeezed tighter around Liz and he nuzzled the top of her head, taking in the fragrant scent of her hair. However, as he did so, she shifted in her sleep and turned onto her side, away from him, leaving him staring at her smooth, naked back. Max frowned slightly at this, but rather than just accepting it and sleep alone, he took the opportunity to curl up behind her and slip his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him.

He lay comfortably behind her for several minutes and was on the verge of falling back to sleep again, when an unexpected movement caused his eyes to snap open in surprise.

Liz was shifting… no; make that _grinding…_against him. A gasp of pleasure escaped his lips at the effect of her movements on his body. The thought that Liz's actions seemed a little strange, considering how shy she had been with him last night, crossed his mind briefly, but it was dismissed quickly as her hand reached round to grab his leg and slip it between her thighs. His hand slid up over the soft skin of her stomach until it encountered her small, pert breasts. He heard her moan as his finger circled her left nipple and then again, as he took her breast in his palm and massaged it gently.

He manoeuvred his right arm underneath her so that it was between her body and the mattress and he moved his hand down to the juncture of her thighs. His fingers slipped through her curls to find her clit and as he rubbed it lightly, she let out a gasp. Max placed soft kisses on the side of her neck and with his left hand, he reached down to lift her leg slightly, preparing to enter her; but before he realised what was happening, he'd been flipped onto his back, a naked Liz straddling his stomach.

"What –?" he tried to question.

"Shh," she whispered, her dark eyes sparkling. The look in them was…well, he didn't really know how to describe it; it was a look he had never seen her give him before. However, he didn't have time to dwell on it, as Liz's lips were suddenly on his own, her tongue probing his mouth.

He responded eagerly and moaned into her mouth as she moved her body down slightly and he felt her bottom pressing against his erection. Not breaking the kiss, he placed his hands on her hips, lifting her up, ready for more.

At that moment, with Liz poised gracefully over him, his erection brushing her folds, the last thing on his mind was protection or even the impracticability of the situation, with Liz's parents in the same apartment, just down the hall. The only thing his mind could process was the fact that he was finally with Liz and on the verge of making love to her for the second time in twelve hours.

He closed his eyes when he felt her hands slid gently up over his chest and come to rest on his chest, supporting her weight as she began to lower herself onto him.

"Liz…" he hissed as he felt her hot, wet passage envelop him. There was no better feeling in the world than being one with Liz Parker. "I love you," he whispered.

Suddenly he found himself being pushed roughly into the mattress as Liz rose up off him and scrambled off the bed. Max opened his eyes in bewilderment, to see her quickly grab her robe from the desk chair and wrap it tightly around herself. Looking down at his naked body, he grabbed the sheet at the end of the bed and pulled it around his waist to cover up.

"Liz, what's wrong," he asked, concerned. She was standing with her back to him, her arms wrapped around herself tightly. "Are you okay? What just happened here?"

He heard her let out a soft snort and saw her shake her head. "After everything," she said in a deceptively soft tone. "After everything I've done for you, this is how you repay me?"

"What? Liz, I don't understand. What are you talking about?" Max was getting worried, what was he supposed to have done. She couldn't be talking about what happened just now, could she? After all, she was the one who had taken control of the situation.

"Don't call me that!" she spun round swiftly and Max gasped, this time in horror.

Her eyes were purple.

* * *

Isabel shifted uncomfortably on Michael's couch. She had been unable to sleep, the uneasy feeling in her chest preventing her from doing so. She had been sitting at home last night, curled up of the sofa, watching TV and trying to keep her mind off Alex, when suddenly she felt a lurch in her chest.

Something was wrong.

Her first thought had been to go to Max, but then she remembered that he had gone out earlier and would not be back until late. Therefore, she had sought out Michael and he had been kind enough to let her crash on his couch for the night.

When she'd first arrived at his apartment, she'd felt both guilty for interrupting his evening with Maria and embarrassed that she was making such a big deal about just one strange feeling.

But quite unexpectedly, Michael had taken her words seriously and demanded that she tell him exactly what she'd felt. Surprised by his behaviour, she'd pleaded with him to tell her what was going on and eventually the whole story about Alex and Tess and Liz had come out. With Maria's help, Michael had carefully explained what Liz and Max had been investigating, what they'd already found out and why they hadn't told her about it.

She'd really had no other choice but to simply accept what they were telling her and be grateful that she now knew everything.

When Michael got to the part in his story where he'd been spying on the Valenti household and had then broken into Tess' room, he remembered that Tess had been going to meet Isabel for a shopping trip and immediately pounced on the idea that Tess had done something to Isabel the day before. Nevertheless, Isabel argued that nothing at all out of the ordinary had occurred during their time at the Mall and that she just instinctively knew that this new feeling had nothing to do with Tess. It was something else, something she'd never felt before and it scared her.

Maybe this was a sign that a new evil was in their midst, and that they now had to find some way to fight it.

She sighed; she just hoped that she had been able to talk to Max about this.

* * *

"Liz?" Max questioned softly, fearfully.

"My name is not Liz," she ground out angrily. She gave a harsh chuckle, "I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet, Zan."

"Zan…?" his eyes narrowed suddenly, "Who are you?" he demanded, gripping the sheet around him tightly and rising from the bed, stalking towards her. "What have you done to Liz?"

Her lips formed a mocking smirk, her eyes challenging, menacing. "I haven't done anything to _Liz_," she spat. "She is me; I am her."

A disbelieving expression settled over Max's face. "And again I say, who exactly are you?" he was now towering over her, a dangerous glint in his eye.

"You don't recognise me, Zan? You really don't remember me, from before?" her eyes narrowed.

A confused, but still angry frown appeared on his face, "I don't remember anything, other than my life here in Roswell. So, stop playing games with me and tell me who the hell you are. Now."

She let out an incredulous snort. "You say you don't remember, but you will, my love. Maybe this will ring a bell. I am Ariana," she stated confidently.

Max shook his head slightly. "Ariana? I don't…" his voice trailed off as he became caught in her stare, his eyes drawn to hers. He felt something pass through him, something wild and uncontrollable. Something alien.

However, he made himself fight the overpowering sensations she was somehow creating in him. He shook his head and forcefully tore his gaze from hers. "No. This…what is this? Who are you to me?" he grabbed her arm, holding her in place. The face of Liz, the woman he loved, stared up at him and he almost felt guilty for hurting her, but quickly he pushed the feeling aside. This obviously wasn't Liz and he had to find a way to get her back.

She smirked, "_This_ is what we've been waiting for all these years, Zan, and we can finally together again. You're my soul mate."

Max took in a calming breath, "So, you're telling me that you believe that you were my soul mate back on Antar and are now possessing my girlfriend to try to win me back?" he questioned sceptically. "But, I already had a wife on Antar, Tess…Ava…She was my queen."

Ariana snorted, "She may have been your wife, but she was not your lover. I was," she declared "You hated Ava, your marriage was one of convenience, a political arrangement. You were in love with _me_. But we couldn't be together, so I did what I had to do; I killed her. For you, Zan. So that we could finally admit our feelings for each other," she told him, staring defiantly into his shocked eyes. "But I am not possessing anyone," she looked down at her free hand, turning it over, admiring it. "This is my body as much as it is Liz Parker's. It's always been mine, it's just that I've never been in possession of it until now."

As she spoke, Max's grip on her lessened gradually until her arm slipped free and returned to her side. Max was now staring at her in confusion, his mouth opening and closing aimlessly. He could not believe what he was hearing.

"You've…you…you're part of Liz? You've been in there this whole time?" he repeated. "Then why have I never felt your presence? And why have you only appeared now?"

She rolled her eyes in annoyance; did he really not know anything? "Back on Antar, I swore to you that I would do anything to be with you, that I would wait a lifetime for you, Zan. And that is exactly what I've done."

"Wait, you said _you_ killed Ava. I thought we all died at Kivar's hands."

"The rest of you did. You. Rath. Even Vilandra. However, Ava was not with you at that time, she was already gone. We were finally together, at least in private, when Kivar's men stuck, bringing the three of you down. When I heard of your mother's intention to clone you and send you here, I devised an plan of my own that would reunite us here on Earth," she told him, a hint of pride in her tone.

"I had to find a suitable host for my essence, someone that would be of similar age to you when you awoke and left the pods so that, through her, we could finally be together again," Max took in a sharp breath, but she continued, regardless. "What I hadn't counted on was Ava being sent here with you and Liz pushing you towards her, or the fact that once my spirit was transferred into this body, I would be trapped inside it; undetected, unable to take control of it, to speak up. I've just been sitting here for the past seventeen years, waiting to be released."

Realisation flashed across Max's features, "And what happened between us last night? Liz and I making love was what triggered your release?" she nodded triumphantly.

"Yes."

"So what do I do now? How do I get her back?" he asked desperately.

"You don't."

_TBC…_


	17. Chapter 17

**Part Seventeen**

"W…What?"

Ariana's words rang in Max's ears, as fear overtook his body.

"You don't get Liz back, at least not as she was before," she said. At the confusion evident in Max's features, she was forced to explain. "This is still Liz's body, and she is still in here," she tapped the side of her head. "But, now I'm in here too. Like I said before Zan, we are the same. I am part of her and she is part of me; and now we share the same body." She let that sink in. "Right this minute, I'm the one in control, but I don't know how long I can keep her at bay in here," she said as she tapped the side of her head.

"I…" Max closed his eyes as he struggled to speak. He felt dizzy, faint; his perfect world (as least where his relationship with Liz was concerned) had just come crashing down around him and he had no idea what to do or how to react to this sudden development. "What do you want from me? What do you –" he fought to stay awake and lucid, but unconsciousness was beginning to take over.

"I want _you_, Zan; and I will do whatever I have to, for us to be together with no one else around to get in our way," were the last words he heard before his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the floor.

"Max!"

* * *

He woke to find someone leaning over him, shaking his shoulder gently. Dark hair fell across his face and as he breathed in the scent of her shampoo, the memories of what happened before he passed out returned to the forefront of his mind. _Oh God!_ Bile rose up in his throat and he fought the urge to throw up.

"Liz?" he whispered hopefully, looking up into her eyes. With a sigh of relief, he realised that they had returned to their usual deep brown.

"It's me, Max. What happened? I woke up and found you lying here. You were passed out on the floor, the sheet wrapped around you like this," she said. "And why did I have my robe on in bed? I seem to recall that I wasn't wearing much of anything when we fell asleep last night," she teased, a grin lighting up the whole face, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"Ughh," he groaned as he tried to sit up. His head was spinning, the words of this so-called 'Ariana' playing back repeatedly in his mind. Had it actually happened? Did Liz really have the spirit of his past lover trapped inside her body?

Grasping the sheet around his waist with one hand, Max used the other hand to hoist himself upright, holding onto Liz for support when he was finally standing. She led him back to the bed and then sat down next to him on the edge.

She stroked his cheek and leaned in to give him a tender kiss on the lips. Max allowed himself to get lost in the feel of her for a moment before reality invaded his senses and he broke their embrace.

"Max, what's wrong?"

"Liz," he turned to look at her, taking her hand in his. "What do you remember? From last night, I mean. And this morning?"

Her brow furrowed, "I'm really not sure what you're trying to say, Max," she was confused. However, then she smiled, "Last night was…the best night of my life. I remember falling asleep, curled up at your side, your arms around me…" she trailed off as she got lost in the memory. "But, when I woke up this morning, you were lying on the floor and I was wearing _this_," she gestured to her bathrobe in confusion.

She caught Max's eyes, seeing the fearful look in them. "Max, did something happen while I was asleep?" she asked cautiously.

A strangled sound erupted from his throat and he looked down at their joined hands. How was he supposed to tell Liz what had just happened to him? To _her_? It would destroy her.

"Max, tell me. Please. What's going on?"

Swallowing forcefully, Max finally found his voice, "That's exactly what I'd like to know," he mumbled wearily. A glance back up to her face let him know that he had to do better than that. It was now or never. "Liz, something did happen this morning. But, it happened to _you_, not me."

She shook her head, "What? No. No, that can't be right. Nothing happened to me. I've only just woken up!"

He sucked in a deep breath, tracing the back of her hand with his thumb. "Please, just hear me out on this," he practically begged. At her confused and reluctant nod, he continued, "Earlier, when I woke up, you woke up too. We were…we were um, fooling around," he looked embarrassed as he said it. "And I told you I loved you," he paused when Liz blushed slightly, "But, suddenly you scrambled off the bed and pulled on your robe. You told me your name wasn't Liz; it was Ariana. You claimed that you were my…mistress, I suppose…back on Antar." Liz's jaw went slack at this, but he sent her a pleading look and she let him continue, despite the absurdity of his words. "You – she – claimed that she was responsible for Ava's death and that when I was killed in that life, she devised a plan to allow us to be together here on Earth. Her essence was implanted in you; she claims to be a part of you. That she always has been."

Liz's eyes were round in disbelief, "Max, would you listen to yourself? Do you hear what you're saying? That is the craziest thing I have ever heard!" she stood up from the bed, ripping her hand free from his grasp and began pacing the room.

"Liz," he stood too and reach out to grab her, mid-stride. "Liz, you have to listen to me. I'm not making this up." However, she wouldn't look at him. "Liz!" he cried, forcefully and her eyes finally flew to his. "It's true. When you were talking to me, telling me all of those things…Liz, your eyes…they were _purple_."

But, she still refused to believe what he was telling her, "Max, if this…_person_…were really inside me, in my head, surely I would have known about it. And surely, you would have _seen_ it when we connected last night. But you didn't. You didn't see anything. How do you explain that?"

He relaxed slightly, loosening his grip on her; she was just as confused as he was. "That was exactly my reaction too, Liz. But, as much as I don't what to believe it, I think it might be true. And the reason we didn't know about it…her," he corrected. "Was because she's been trapped inside you all these years, waiting to be released, waiting for something to happen that would give her access to your body. And that something was…" he trailed off, not wanting to voice the words. But, realisation dawned and Liz beat him to it.

"Us. _We _did this. Last night, when we made love; that was what caused her release!"

Max could do nothing but nod miserably.

"Max, show me," she said suddenly.

"What?"

"Show me what happened this morning, you know, through our connection."

He was hesitant, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," her answer was accompanied by a firm nod.

"Okay," he let out a resigned sigh and cupped her face with his hands. Leaning down, he closed the distance between them and their lips met, the connection immediately springing to life.

But, barely a minute later, they sprung apart, Liz jumping back from him in shock.

"Oh my God, Max. This is _real_, isn't it?" she cried in despair. "There really is something alien inside of me, trying to take control of my body and there's nothing I can do about it!" she gazed at him tearfully. "How am I going deal with this? How do I stop this thing from taking over my body again? How will you be able to look at me…love me…anymore, knowing that this crazy person is living inside of me? Oh God, what am I going to do, Max? I'm not _me_ anymore."

Max's expression softened and he drew her into his arms. "Liz, you _are_ you, you always will be." He reached up to stroke her cheek tenderly. "We'll get through this, okay? I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I love you and nothing in this world or the next is _ever_ going to stop me from loving you. I'm not letting you go, not again. Just remember that, okay? No matter what happens in the future, I'll never let you go."

He felt her nod against his chest, he couldn't even imagine how she must be feeling right now, but he was going to do everything in his power to help her, to keep her safe.

There were still so many questions they didn't have the answers to yet. The most puzzling one of all being, that if this Ariana had really been inside Liz all this time and their lovemaking had triggered her release, then why had their future-selves not experienced the same thing the night of the Gomez concert? How had they able to experience twelve years of married bliss, with no sign of Ariana? Or had they? Maybe there _was_ a way for them to control this and they just had to figure out how.

Feeling slightly reassured; Max held Liz close, one hand stroking her hair tenderly. Nevertheless, despite his resolve that they would get through this, that everything would be all right in the end, there was a niggling thought in the back of this mind, that there was still something they didn't know. Something important and as he placed a soft kiss on the top of Liz's head, he swore to himself that he would find out exactly what that was.

_TBC…_


	18. Chapter 18

**Part Eighteen**

Several minutes passed as Max held Liz tightly in his arms. However, as he stroked her soft hair, he realised that there was something they needed to do.

"Liz?" he pulled back slightly from their embrace.

"What is it, Max?" her tear-stained face staring up at him questioningly.

"I think…I think we need to let the others know; about the investigation; about everything. And I think we need to do it now. Today."

Still looking at him, she nodded miserably, "Okay, Max; but what about this… Ariana? What if she comes back and I can't do anything to stop it?"

Max stroked her arms with his thumbs and said thoughtfully, "We'll deal with it, okay? And if it happens while the others are there, well then, we'll all be there to help you; to prevent her from doing anything to you or to any of us."

"Okay," she agreed.

He smiled down at her gratefully, "Okay, I'll round everyone up at school today and we'll drive out to the quarry at lunch, all right?"

"Sure."

"Okay," he whispered tenderly. "I should really get home and grab my books before my parents realise I never came back last night. Will you be all right if I go? I'll come by and pick you up for school."

Touched by his thoughtfulness, she smiled and nodded, "I'll be fine, Max. Go. Don't worry about me."

"But I do worry about you, Liz. I can't help it," he gazed at her lovingly and she blushed under his attention.

"Put some clothes on and go," insisted Liz, several moments later, breaking the staring contest they seemed to be engaged in. She gave him a small push and indicated to his clothes, which were scattered across the floor

"Okay, okay, I'm going," he replied with a small smile. He picked up his shirt and pants and pulled them on. He slipped his bare feet into his sneakers and grabbed his bag. When he was ready, he dropped a quick, tender kiss on her lips and made his way to the window. "I'll be back in less than an hour," he promised and Liz nodded in reply.

She watched him as he walked across the balcony and swung his legs over the top of the ladder. Just before his head disappeared, he sent her another small smile and it warmed her heart.

Once he had gone, Liz stumbled back, sinking down into her desk chair with a sinking feeling in her chest. She knew they were right to include everyone else in all this, but she couldn't help feeling scared of their reactions; especially Isabel's.

Her gaze drifted to the bed, the place where she had lost her virginity just a few short hours ago. God, if only she had known of the consequences their actions would bring, she never would have gone through with it. As wonderful and breathtaking as it had been, was it really worth letting some crazy alien take over her body, especially one who was in love with her boyfriend?

If only there had been a way to prevent this ever happening. Obviously, this person, this _thing_, had been inside her and had been part of her, her entire life. Maybe if they had known more about Max, Isabel's and Michael's past lives on Antar, if they had known about Ariana, maybe they could have done something to stop this.

Wait a minute!

Maybe somebody already _had_ tried to stop this!

Her thoughts flew to Future Max and his quest to change the future. Perhaps he had not been telling the truth when he gave his reasons for getting Max to fall out of love with her. What if, in his timeline, Ariana had been released that night, the night of Gomez? And what if he really came back to prevent the alien from ever appearing? What if somewhere down the line – in fourteen years, perhaps, she had become a danger to them all? Could _she_; Liz, Ariana, _whoever_, possibly have been responsible for the end of the world?

Oh God! What had she done?

Wrapping the bathrobe around her more tightly, she stood up and stumbled over to dislodge the loose brick in her wall, the secret place where she kept her diary. She had not written in it since last year, before Tess happened, before Max had discovered his destiny, before she had run away and left him at the pod chamber and before Future Max appeared right here in her room and changed her life.

She pulled out the journal carefully and carried it to her bed. She sat down, placing the book on her lap. It was her intention to comb over everything she had ever written in there, in order to try to find some clue, _any_ clue that they might have been able to prevent this from happening.

She was flicking through the last few entries of the journal, when something caught her eye. It was an envelope, lodged in between the pages. Curiously, but with a shaking hand, she pulled it out.

It looked like a letter, but how had it gotten there? She was the only person who knew about the loose brick in the wall; she was the only one who knew where she kept the journal. She turned the envelope over and there it was, written on the front, her name, Liz.

She slid her finger under the seal and pulled out several folded pieces of paper and another, smaller envelope. Putting the second envelope to the side for a second, she carefully unfolded the letter and, taking a shaky breath, she began to read the words written in extremely familiar handwriting.

_My dearest Liz,_

_As I'm sitting here at your desk, writing you this letter, you're out doing what I asked: talking to me, the other me, and knowing that right now you're standing in my old room, telling me that you don't want to be with me, just breaks my heart._

_However, there is something else that I need to tell you. I wasn't completely honest with you when I told you the reason for the end of the world. It wasn't Tess. Yes, she did leave town and we were weaker without her but her absence from our group wasn't what eventually caused us to lose the battle._

_God, this is so hard for me to write, and I know that I should have told you this face to face, but I just couldn't. I know it's selfish, but I couldn't bear to see your heart break as I told you what I have to say._

_But first, I need you to know that I love you. I always have. Ever since I first laid eyes on you back in third grade, I knew that you were the person I was supposed to be with. And that still holds true, despite what I'm about to tell you._

_Liz, the real reason that we can't be together, is because when we made love that night of the concert, the night that hopefully will have already passed once you read this letter, something happened; something none of us could have predicted and it changed our lives forever._

_We were still happy, for the most part. We did get married and we had twelve wonderful years together, but we were not alone, not all the time. I know this probably sounds crazy, but the night we first made love, we released something; it was the essence, the spirit of someone I supposedly knew on Antar. Her name was Ariana and she was my…mistress, I guess, in my past life. When I died and was sent here, she came up with a plan to reunite us on Earth. Her plan involved planting her spirit inside a human; inside you, Liz, so that when I was old enough, we would meet again._

_However, everything went horribly wrong. When our actions caused her release, she tried to take over your body completely. At first, we had no idea how to stop her or control when she would infiltrate your mind and it almost tore us apart._

_Luckily, a couple of months afterwards, someone else appeared in Roswell, someone who knew of our past and could help us. Her name was Serena and she was an old family friend and Royal scientist on Antar and had been sent down to Earth to keep an eye on Ariana. She told us the full story of who Ariana was and what her intentions were. _

_Her plan, once she had been released and had control of your body, was to do whatever it took to have me for herself. Serena explained that if we didn't learn how to stop her appearances, she would go after the people we loved. So, she taught us how to prevent anything happening to you and we were able to live a fairly normal, peaceful life._

_However, just a few months before I came back here, we lost any influence we'd once had over her and she took over. Using your body, she tried to kill our friends and families. For the large part, she was unsuccessful, but then she turned to someone else. Kivar, our enemy. She joined forces with him and left Roswell in your body, with you trapped inside. _

_I didn't see you for months, Liz. I was so worried about you. I couldn't eat or sleep; I thought I'd never see you again. When you disappeared, Serena began working on a way to banish her from your body for good. She eventually found something and before she died, she gave instructions to me of how to do it if I ever found you again._

_She finally returned when Kivar attacked us. There was still no sign of you; you were trapped deep inside your mind, unable to get out. By that point, Ariana had gone from loving me to wanting revenge on me for loving you and not her. So, she killed Isabel, right in front of me. She stood there, over her limp body, smirking triumphantly, but it was your face, your eyes staring back at me._

_I could do nothing but watch, my body was frozen; but that image haunted me for the next two weeks, until I saw her again. This time, she went after Michael. I didn't see her do it, but I got there just in time to see him fall to the ground. I ran to him and held him in my arms, but it was too late. _

_When I turned to Ariana, full of anger, something happened. She collapsed to the floor, her purple eyes gazing up at me and told me this was it, it was just the two of us now, and she fainted._

_When she woke, you were back in control again and you remembered everything she had done. So, you came up with an idea. Several months before, Serena had been working on a way to allow time travel in the Granilith. She had shown you the plans and told you how it could be done. We decided that I would go back and try to stop Ariana's release. I had to make sure that we never got close enough to make love to each other._

_Liz, I want to tell you how sorry I am that I couldn't be honest with you in person, but it's better this way. I will place this in your journal in hopes that you will write in it after I am gone._

_I pray that you find and read this letter and that one you have, you will understand why we can never give into temptation and be together._

_If, however, for any reason, something happens and you don't find this in time, I have included, in another envelope, a way for you and Max to put a stop to Ariana's influence forever._

_All I want is for you to be safe._

_I love you, Liz Parker._

_Yours forever,_

_Max._

Liz was in tears by the end of his letter; they were both tears of shock and of shame. Shame that she hadn't found it sooner, shame that she had ignored his warnings and had slept with Max anyway and therefore had unknowingly released a great danger; but mixed into that shame was anger, both at herself and at Max for not telling her the whole truth.

How could she have been so stupid? She'd done it again! She had made love to him and now that could mean the end of the world once again.

Unsteadily, she reached for the other envelope. Sliding it open, she found a folded piece of white paper and a photograph tucked inside. She opened the paper and her eyes scanned the words written there, her eyes widening in wonder.

Then her gaze fell on the photograph that she held in her hand and she gasped. It was a picture of the two of them on their wedding day, their arms were wrapped around each other and they had huge smiles on their faces.

Suddenly she felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe Serena's idea would work and she and Max could finally be happy together.

_TBC…_


	19. Chapter 19

**Part** **Nineteen**

Liz was still clutching the contents of the envelope that Future Max had left for her to her chest, when Max called forty-five minutes later, to let her know he was on his way over to pick her up. Wiping a lone tear from her eye, she carefully placed the letter, along with the folded sheet of paper and the photograph, back inside the envelope and quickly got ready for school. Although it was the last place she wanted to be right now, she knew that she had to keep going on with her life as normal and push her current worries to the back of her mind, at least for now. And besides, they were going to tell the others everything today.

When Max arrived at the Crashdown, Liz was still feeling shell-shocked by what Future Max had told her in the letter: that in the end, _she_ had been the one to inadvertently cause the end of the world. It had all been her fault, or at least, the fault of the _thing_ that was living inside her.

As she climbed into the jeep and kissed Max good morning for the second time that day, she resolved to tell him about the letter and the possible method of defeating Ariana as soon as she could. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen on the way to school, since it took less than ten minutes to get there by car and there wasn't nearly enough time to go into details before first period.

"Did you talk to Isabel about going out to the quarry today?" she asked as Max pulled into the school parking lot.

He nodded, "Yeah, I did. She's going to meet us out here at the beginning of lunch period. Can you find Maria and tell her? I still need to talk to Michael and Tess about it."

"Sure, I have first period with Maria, so that's no problem. But, Max? Are you sure about inviting Tess as well? We've never completely trusted her. Are you sure it's such a great idea to involve her too?" Liz asked, biting her lip anxiously.

Max placed his hand on her upper arm, stroking gently, "Look, I know that none of us have ever fully accepted Tess into the group, but something strange is happening to her right now and we still have to figure out what happened with Alex and why she had that journal. I think she needs to be there."

Liz didn't like it, but she could find no fault with Max's argument. "Okay, you go tell Tess and Michael and I'll find Maria," she agreed finally. She looked into his eyes, "So, I guess I'll see you at lunch then, since we have no classes together this morning." He nodded reluctantly and Liz added, "But I really need to talk to you later, Max. It's important."

He frowned, "What is it, Liz? Did you find something else after I left this morning?"

Liz let out a deep sigh, "Yeah, I did. Max, I think I've found a way to stop Ariana."

A small gasp of surprise escaped his lips, "Liz. That's great. What do we have to do?"

Liz shook her head regretfully, "Not now, Max. We really don't have time to get into it all now."

"Liz, this is kind of a big deal! We need to figure all this out as soon as possible!" He exclaimed and then stopped to think over their options for a moment. "Listen, you have third period free, don't you? I'm going to blow off Math and I'll meet you in the Eraser room, okay? We can talk then."

"Max, I don't think that's such a good idea, especially since you skipped school yesterday. Maybe we should wait until after school…"

"No, is really big, Liz, and I'm not going to wait another six hours to hear what you have to say. I'll see you in third, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed with a sigh, knowing there was no changing Max's mind when he had his heart set on something.

"Great. Thanks," he smiled. "So we better get to class now or we'll be in trouble."

Liz turned to get out of the jeep, but Max's voice stopped her.

"Wait!"

"What, Max?" she asked turning back to him.

"Nothing," he smiled. "Just…"

He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips. "No matter what's happening right now, I just want you to know that last night was the best night of my life. I love you, Liz."

She smiled, "I love you too." With that said, they both got out of the jeep and made their way into the school.

Liz entered the building to find Maria standing just in the entrance, looking out for her.

"Hey, Maria," she smiled at her friend.

"Hey, yourself, Miss Lizzie. So, you wanna tell me exactly what was going on with you and Maxie in the jeep over there?" she asked slyly. "You guys are back together aren't you?" At the blush on Liz's cheeks, she knew she'd hit the nail on the head. "So, I guess you talked things out then."

"Yeah, we did. No thanks to you, though," huffed Liz.

Maria looked sheepish, "Yeah, sorry about that. I thought he already knew."

"Yeah, I figured that," Liz returned, good-naturedly. "But right now, that's the least of our problems. We're having a meeting out at the quarry at lunch. Can you make it?"

Maria instantly sobered, "Sure, Liz. Of course, I'll be there. Does this have anything to do with what you told me the other night about Alex?"

"Maybe. Look, something important has come up and Max and I need to talk to you guys about it."

"Okay, I'll be there," repeated Maria, shifting the book bag on her shoulder. "Come on, we'd better go. Classes await."

* * *

Liz had tried her hardest to concentrate in first and second periods, but her mind kept wandering to Max. What would he say when he read the letter and saw the picture of the two of them on their wedding day? There was no way she could keep that photograph from him; he deserved to see it.

She let out a sigh of relief when the bell rang, indicating the end of second period and she jumped up, exiting the room quickly, with only one destination in mind: the Eraser room.

Max was already there when she slipped inside the room, careful not to be seen as she did so.

"Hey," he couldn't help the smile that lit up his face as Liz appeared in front of him. Despite the circumstances and everything that was going on around them, there was no forgetting or dismissing the huge step forward they'd taken last night and just the sight of Liz was enough to make his blood boil.

"Hi," she smiled back, crossing the room to reach him. He met her halfway and their lips met in a soft, yet heated kiss.

"You know, I still can't quite believe that you're back in my arms again," whispered Max, tenderly caressing her cheek with his index finger.

"I know," murmured Liz, losing herself in the moment. But then she remembered exactly why they were meeting in the Eraser room in the middle of the school day and shook her head. "Max, there's something you need to see."

She took his hand and led him to take a seat next to her on the floor. They sat with their backs against the wall and Liz reached into her bag for the envelope. She pulled it out, clutching it in her hand as she turned back to Max, who was looking on, curiosity burning in his eyes.

"After you left this morning, I took out my journal, something I haven't done since before Tess showed up last year," she admitted and Max sent her a sympathetic glance. "I wanted to see if there was anything that I'd missed the first time around. Anyway," she cleared her throat. "When I opened it up, something fell out. An envelope. It was addressed to me."

"What? But no one knows where you keep your journal, Liz. How could anyone leave a letter in there?" Max was confused.

She shook her head, "Don't say anything, just yet, Max.. Just hear me out, okay?" When he reluctantly nodded, she continued, "Inside, there was a letter. I want you to read it."

Liz pulled out Future Max's letter and handed it to him. Carefully, he opened it up and gasped as he recognised the handwriting.

"Liz, this is…" he looked up at her in disbelief

"I know," she agreed softly. "Go ahead, read it."

She watched intently as his eyes scanned the words written on the white paper, observing his face as he reacted to what was written there.

"Liz," he whispered, tears shining in his eyes as he read of the future, of Liz's, or rather, Ariana's part in all of it. "Oh my God…"

Liz reached over and placed a reassuring hand on his lower arm, her heart breaking for him as she watched the emotions playing across his face. He finished the letter and looked up into her eyes.

"I can't believe all that they – we – went through, just because they were together," he managed, moving his hand to cup her face. "And now, we've gone and done it again. I'm so sorry, Liz, I shouldn't have lost control like that last night."

"No, Max. This is not your fault. If anything, it's mine. I knew that we couldn't be together and I gave in anyway. And now we've released our worst nightmare into the world."

"Liz," he whispered again, shaking his head. "The letter…he said there was a cure. Maybe we can fix this. Do you have the other envelope?"

"Yeah, it's right here," replied Liz. She pulled out the other sheet of paper, leaving the photograph inside the smaller envelope for now, and handed it to him.

Max took it from her and unfolded it. Scanning the words written there, he glanced back up at her. "You know, I think this might just work," he gave her a tentative half-smile. "But we'll have to wait until later to do this. We still need to talk to the others about all of this." When Liz nodded in agreement, he continued apprehensively, "And let's just hope that Ariana doesn't show her face again anytime soon."

They shared a moment of resolve, before Liz remembered about the photo in her hand.

"Max, there was something else in the envelope as well," she told him. "And I think you should see it. It's nothing bad," she reassured him when his expression turned worried. "But it might be a little, well…" she shook her head. "Never mind, just…here you go." She pulled the picture out of the envelope and gently handed it to him.

Tears formed in Max's eyes once again, as he realised what he was holding and he took in a sharp breath.

"It was taken on our wedding day. In the other life, that is," Liz explained. "I think he wanted me to know that we were happy together, at least for most of that time."

"You look beautiful, Liz," Max murmured, his gaze fixed on the picture in his hand. "I want us to have that for real some day," he raised his eyes to her face again and Liz blushed slightly.

"I want that too, Max," he told him. "Do you really think it's possible?"

"Well, I'm not going to rule it out," he said. "But we have a lot to get through first, before we can even consider something like that. There's nothing I'd love more in the world than to marry you some day, Liz Parker."

Her face lit up at his sweet words. "Me too," she whispered. "We have to work all of this out, Max, and find the truth. We have to."

"I know; and we will," he reassured her, before leaning in to kiss her once more.

It was a kiss full of promise and determination.

_TBC…_


	20. Chapter 20

Part Twenty

"So, what's all this about then, Max?" asked Isabel, crossing her arms over her chest.

They were all out at the quarry, standing in their usual circle. Max, Isabel and Tess had ridden in the jeep, whilst Maria, Michael, Liz and Kyle drove there in Maria's Jetta. Max and Liz had decided earlier that it would be best to travel there separately, since the only person that knew they were back together was Maria and they didn't want to arouse suspicion, especially considering that before Alex's death, they hadn't exactly been the best of friends.

"Well," Max began authoritatively, sending a quick glance towards Liz, who responded with a small encouraging smile. "A lot has happened over the past few days and I think it's time we were all brought up to date."

"Uh, Max? What's being happening exactly?" demanded Isabel, irritated. "Because this is the first I've heard of it."

"I know, Iz, and there's a reason for that," Max told her. "If you – all of you – can be patient, I'll explain."

He waited until everyone in the group had nodded their consent before continuing.

"Okay. Well, you all know what was said at the wake last week; first, I want to apologise for getting angry and refusing to listen to what Liz had to say. I realised that I was wrong and I told her so that night," he sent Liz a smile as he spoke. "I also told her that I honestly did believe there was a possibility that what happened to Alex was alien related," he paused as there was a quiet gasp from those in the group who were not yet in the loop on this. "And I offered to help her find out the truth."

"You what? And with Liz; just the two of you?" cried Isabel angrily. "Why didn't you tell me about this? You knew how much Alex meant to me and you didn't even consider that I might want a say in it too? "

"Iz, that's the exact reason why I didn't tell you. You were upset and grieving. I couldn't burden you with it," he explained gently, watching as she absorbed his words and finally nodded in acceptance.

"Okay," she sighed eventually. "So what did you find out?"

"Okay, some of you already know some of this, but I'm just going to start from the beginning."

"Yeah, the beginning would be great, since I seem to have been left completely out of the loop on this one," Kyle interjected sarcastically, half expecting Max to send him a hostile look, like he had done quite frequently since he found him with Liz a few months ago, but Max merely nodded at him cordially and then continued with his speech.

"Well, Liz and I talked at school on Friday and we decided that the best course of action was to visit Alex's house to see if we could find any clues that might indicate what really happened."

"And?" interrupted Isabel anxiously.

"We did find one strange thing on Alex's computer. For some reason, he had been compiling a detailed file on Liz before he died. We don't know the full story yet, but it appears that he was investigating her."

Michael and Maria already knew this and so did not react, but Isabel, Tess and Kyle looked shocked.

"What?" Isabel whispered.

"Look, we really don't know everything right now, but there is a lot more that you guys need to know," Max told them, moving closer to Liz. "We printed off Alex's files and Liz and I met up on Saturday night to look through them, but we didn't get any closer to finding out the truth."

"But then, later on, I saw Tess," he nodded in her direction, "who told me that she was confused and experiencing strange blackouts. It also turned out that Alex had been keeping a journal and it had mysteriously made its way into Tess' room," Max described to the others, carefully omitting the part about Michael sneaking into the Valenti's and the confrontation in the desert. "The journal described that Alex had also been experiencing similar blackouts and we wondered whether the two were linked."

"You mean that Alex and Tess were being manipulated by something?" Isabel questioned, with a nod in Tess' direction. "But that doesn't explain why he was investigating Liz."

"You're right, based on that alone, Iz," Max said. "But there was something else. Alex wrote in his diary that the first thing he sensed after each blackout was that Liz," he sent her an apologetic glance, "had somehow been there with him; which is why he started the whole investigation of her. The thing is, we still don't know why he thought that."

"This is just crazy!" Kyle burst out suddenly. "Do you hear what you're saying? You're accusing Liz of killing Alex!"

"Wait! Kyle, stop," Max held up a hand. "That's not what we're saying at all. After we found the journal, Liz and I discussed what he'd written and she let me connect with her. Liz had nothing to do with this." He reached for her hand, squeezing it comfortingly, but Liz remained stoic and focused, barely paying any thought to him.

Max dropped her hand as quickly as he'd taken hold of it. Obviously, Liz wasn't comfortable with the others knowing the status of their relationship just yet; hell, he wasn't even sure that he wanted them to know. He cast his gaze round the circle of his friends, checking to make sure he hadn't overwhelmed them with this new information. He stopped, however, when his eyes fell on Tess. She had gone pale, her hands clenched tightly at the sides.

"Tess? Are you okay?" he questioned.

"I…" she started, but was cut off by a familiar yet at the same time, completely foreign voice.

"She's just feeling guilty. She thinks she has something to do with what's going on," sneered the voice and everyone turned in the direction it came from.

"Liz?" Max began fearfully, but he knew he wasn't speaking to Liz anymore; he was talking to Ariana.

But she ignored him, continuing to approach Tess. "See, she's been feeling it, too," she pressed. "Haven't you, Tess?"

"Liz? What's the matter with you?" demanded Maria, her hands on her hips. "You can't just go around accusing people – "

"I'm just telling it like it is, _Maria_," Liz spat, cutting her off. "See, Tess here has been experiencing the same things as Alex did before he died. And now she's wondering if maybe she had something to do with his death after all."

"W-what?" whispered Tess, her eyes wide. "No, I – "

"Liz?" Isabel questioned softly, wondering what exactly was going through her mind right now that was causing her to act like this. But then she turned her gaze toward Max, finding him also watching Liz carefully. However, there was something else in his eyes; something that told her he knew what was going on. "Max?"

"Oh my God, Liz! What's happening to your eyes?" cried Maria suddenly and Isabel watched as Max's head snapped up and he began to stride over to Liz.

"That's enough," he stated firmly, grabbing onto her arms from behind to hold her in place.

"Really?" Liz questioned, tilting her head backwards in his direction. Her eyes held a tint of purple and an evil smirk played on her lips. "Because I was under the impression that the rest of our little gang might want to know that Alex's killer is standing right here in front of me."

"No," whispered Tess, a lone tear sliding down her cheek. "I didn't kill anyone…"

"Ariana…" Max warned softly, so that the others wouldn't hear. But he wasn't as successful as he'd thought.

"What was that, Maxwell?" Michael cut in accusingly.

"Yes, 'Maxwell', why don't you tell everyone what you just called me? I mean, they deserve to know who they're really speaking to, don't you think?"

"What the hell is going on here?"

The sudden outburst came from Kyle this time, although the others also expressed their confusion with the situation.

Max sent a quick warning glare towards Ariana before speaking.

"Okay, guys. There's something you need to know," he told them. "But first, I just have to do this." He held his hand up to the side of Liz's head and let it emit a bright glow. As he supporting her weight in his other arm, everyone watched as Liz's strange coloured eyes closed and she collapsed against him, unconscious.

Maria and Isabel's eyes widened and Maria immediately opened her mouth in protest; but before she could say anything, Max swept Liz up in his arms and carried her to his jeep, laying her in the back before returning to the group.

"Look, I didn't hurt her, okay? That was the only thing I could do to keep her quiet for now."

"Right," Michael nodded sceptically. "So, you mind letting us in on what's going on now?"

"Okay, well," he sighed, running a hand through his hair. It looked like he was going to have to tell them about he and Liz after all. "I guess the first thing you should know is that Liz and I got back together this weekend." He stopped to wait for their reactions, but none came. To most of them, they'd seen this coming for a while, despite the awkwardness between the two of them of late; it was just a question of when they decided to give in to their feelings. And of course, Maria already knew about their newfound relationship, so she didn't look surprised. "The thing is, last night we…" he searched for the right words. "We slept together and when I woke up this morning, her eyes were purple and she was like that," he nodded to where Liz was passed out in the jeep.

"God! What happened to her, Max?" It was Isabel who spoke first.

He looked round the circle at his friends.

"Are you sure you want to hear all of this? Because it may take a while…"

He looked round at the circle of faces, a mixture of confusion and curiosity etched on their faces.

_Well, here goes nothing_, he thought to himself as he sucked in a breath and began to retell the events of the past few hours.

TBC… 


	21. Chapter 21

Part Twenty-One

Max sighed wearily and ran a hand over his face as he drove. He glanced sideways at Liz, who was turned away from him and staring at the passing scenery. She had woken up shortly after he'd finished explaining everything about Future Max, Ariana and the letter to the others and luckily, was herself again. Somehow, this time she had remembered Ariana's presence within her mind and all that she had said. Although their friends had questioned both of them about what had happened to Liz earlier, Liz had seemed reluctant to talk about it and had mostly shied away from the conversation. It wasn't long before Isabel glanced at her watch and realised that they were late for afternoon classes. So, Max had helped Liz to the jeep and this time, Michael, Isabel, Tess and Kyle all rode in Maria's car to give the other two some time alone.

He shook his head sadly as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Sure, this whole situation was tough on all of them, but Liz had gotten the raw end of the deal. She actually had this entity living inside of her and at the moment, had no way to control its sudden appearances. He tried to concentrate on the road as he drove them back into Roswell, but he couldn't help notice that something had seemed out of place with Liz since she'd woken up. She wasn't talking, and he was worried about her.

"So, here we are," he stated unnecessarily as he pulled into the school's parking lot. Liz said nothing. "Are you okay?" he asked, reaching out to touch her arm.

"What?" Her head turned to face him as she spoke in a soft, confused tone. "Sorry; I'm fine, Max."

"Are you sure? Because if you're worried about her coming back, we don't have to go back in."

"No, it's not that; it was different this time, I remember what happened and now I can tell if she's trying to take control again. I don't think she'll do it while we're at school."

"Oh, okay," Max nodded and observed her as she got out of the jeep. He was still worried. She had said that Ariana coming back wasn't the problem, but obviously, _something_ was wrong. The question was: what?

"I really have to get to English class now, but I'll see you after school?" she asked, her expression somewhere between hopeful and resigned.

"Sure," Max replied. "We'll meet here and I'll drive you home." What was going on with her?

"Okay, see you later, Max." She turned and walked towards the school building. Max's eyes followed her for a moment before he too got out of the jeep and headed towards his next class.

* * *

Max could barely concentrate on his classes that afternoon, his mind too preoccupied with thoughts of Liz and Ariana and how they needed to fix this mess as soon as possible. He was anxious to carry out this 'cure' for Ariana, but first it was more important to find out what had happened to Liz whilst Ariana was in control earlier and why it had had such an effect on her.

He let out a sigh of relief when the final bell rang to indicate the end of the day. He gathered up his book as quickly as he could and rushed out to the parking lot to wait for Liz. His parents were out of town for the next couple of days – something about a conference – so he figured that taking Liz back to his house would be the best course of action for now. Hopefully, they could talk and he would be able to convince her to open up to him about what was on her mind. With any luck, they'd also have time to work on getting rid of Ariana once and for all.

* * *

If truth be told, Liz was not looking forward to meeting Max at the jeep after school. Something strange had happened earlier today when her body had been taken over by Ariana. It wasn't like this morning when she'd had no recollection of the event actually taking place, no this time it had been different. Not only did she remember what it had been like to have her own mind shoved aside to make room for someone else's, but she had been given an insight into the crazy woman's thoughts and feelings. She had learned more about who Ariana was. She had discovered things that she'd rather not know and that might possibly tear their group apart if the others were to hear them.

And now, she was dreading having to open up to Max about those things that she'd seen and felt. How would he react when she told him what she'd found out? The new knowledge even made her want to throw up. What would happen when everybody found out?

Liz jumped when the final bell rang, and with her heart pounding anxiously in her chest, she took her time in gathering her books and making her way out to Max's jeep. He was already there when she got there, his hands shoved in his pockets as he watched his foot scuff the concrete repeatedly. Despite the nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach about what she had to tell him, she couldn't control the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth as she watched him look up and notice her approaching him, a wide smile on his face. He was hers again. Although, she wasn't sure if he would still feel the same way after she told him about Ariana.

"Hey," he greeted warmly as she reached the jeep. Sliding an arm round her waist, he pulled her to him and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

"Hey, Max." Liz tried for a smile, but the jumbled mess of emotions that clouded her mind overshadowed it and she was unsuccessful.

He frowned. "What's wrong?" he asked, the worried expression marring his gorgeous features. "Is it what happened earlier? Because, you know, it's not your fault," he told her earnestly.

"Max…" Liz started, but then lost her nerve and avoided his question. "Get we get out of here?"

He smiled, putting his concern for her on hold for now. If she wanted to leave, then he certainly wasn't going to refuse the request. "Sure, we can go to mine. My parents are out of town, so we don't have to worry about getting the third degree from either of them just yet."

"Okay," she nodded, glad to have been able to put off telling him anything right now. Max held out his hand to her and led her round to the passenger side of the jeep. He helped her in, pressing another quick kiss to her mouth before walking back around to his side and climbing in. With a quick glance in, he started the car and they sped off towards Murray Lane.

The uncomfortable silence was beginning to become unbearable. They had arrived at the Evans residence twenty minutes ago and since then, had been sat awkwardly in Max's bedroom, neither knowing how to broach the subject of this afternoon. Liz was perched on the edge of the bed, whilst Max observed her every so often from his spot at the desk.

Suddenly, Max couldn't take it anymore. He stood up from the chair abruptly causing Liz's head to snap up in surprise, and quickly took a seat on the bed next to her.

"Liz," he started, cupping the underside of her jaw in his hand. "Please…tell me what's wrong. I can't stand to see you upset."

"Max…I want to tell you, I really do…but I just don't know if I can."

"Liz, I love you. Please don't ever be afraid to tell me anything, okay? Whatever it is, I can handle it."

Liz doubted that – he didn't even know what she had to say yet – but looking into his eyes, so tender and sincere, she just couldn't hold back any longer.

"Max, you know that I remember what happened earlier…with Ariana?" He nodded. "Well, I don't just remember that she was there…it was like I took a backseat to her. I could hear what she was thinking and feeling, but I couldn't do anything to stop her. It was like I was stuck inside my own mind and I couldn't get out."

"Liz, I'm so sorry – " Max started.

"There's more," she cut in. "While I was…er, gone…I found out some things from her. It was like I was a part of her mind or something. I just knew things about her."

"And? What did you find out?"

Liz sighed and closed her eyes, wishing that she didn't have to voice what he had to know.

"Wow, this is hard," she exhaled, not bearing to look into his eyes. "Max," her voice cracked. "It was Ariana."

Max was puzzled. "What was Ariana?"

"It was her; she killed Alex."

_TBC…_


	22. Chapter 22

**Part Twenty-Two**

"So," started Kyle casually as the five of them took a seat at one of the Crashdown booths. "Some story, huh?" he grinned.

From the other side of the booth, Isabel shot him an incredulous look. "Kyle!"

"What?"

"What's going on with Max and Liz is really serious. How can you joke about it?" she frowned at him disapprovingly.

"God, I can't believe this is happening," murmured Maria from her spot between Michael and Kyle. She leaned into her boyfriend and his arm tightened around her shoulder in comfort. "First Alex…_dies_," she practically choked out, "and now something strange and _alien_ is happening to Liz. How did everything get so screwed up?"

"I don't know, Maria," Isabel replied once she'd regained her composure over Kyle's laidback attitude to all of this. "God, this is like a nightmare."

"Tell me about it," mumbled Tess, before continuing with a stronger tone, "I mean, first this _Ariana_ has an affair with my husband on Antar, and now she's accusing me of killing someone!"

Both Kyle and Isabel shot her sympathetic glances at this. Sure, Tess still hadn't been fully accepted into the group and the others were tentative about trusting her, but she had been living under Kyle's roof (and in his bedroom) for months and Isabel had been her friend first, before they discovered who she was. It was only polite to show her some concern at this point.

The table was quite for a moment, the silence only interrupted by the waitress coming up to take their orders, until Isabel turned her gaze towards Michael, who was sitting in the corner of the booth with his arm still around Maria.

"You know, you've been awfully quiet about all this, Michael. What's with that? Usually you're the first to make your opinion known when something big happens."

He shrugged, "Well, for a start, Maria and I already knew some of what was going on." His gaze briefly fell on Tess as he remembered their confrontation out in the desert the day before. At the suspicious expressions of Isabel and Kyle, he elaborated, "Max told me a little of what was going on with Alex, and Liz spoke to Maria about it."

As the two of them accepted this news, Tess breathed an inward sigh of relief. He hadn't mentioned their meeting in the desert yesterday. Not that it was that big a deal, but she didn't want too much attention focused on her right now. After all, she knew that even now, she still wasn't entirely trusted by the group and she didn't want what little trust they did have in her to be completely destroyed.

"So, what to we do now?" asked Kyle suddenly.

Maria looked at him in confusion. "Do?"

"About Max and Liz, and this whole situation."

"Well," started Isabel calmly. "Max mentioned something about them finding a way to get rid of Ariana for good – sort of an exorcism or something. So, I guess they'll do that and then she'll be gone and we can finally figure out what happened to Alex."

Around the table, the others nodded tentatively and Isabel looked around at them confidently.

Everything was going to work out just fine.

Right?

* * *

"She what?" Max's mouth dropped open in shock. He was astounded. "Liz, that's just not possible! We connected remember? There was no evidence of her inside you at all!"

"That's just it, Max. That's what's so confusing about all this. She didn't use my body to do it; she couldn't, because we hadn't made love yet."

"Liz, what are you trying to say here?" Max was confused. She wasn't making sense.

"Somehow…I don't know how…Ariana managed to transfer her essence to someone else – possess them, I guess – and she used _their_ body to get to Alex."

"But…" started Max, then stopped when realisation dawned. "Oh my God…this afternoon, when Ariana showed up, she accused Tess of killing Alex. That's what happened, isn't it? She took a walk inside Tess' body and went after Alex!"

Liz could do nothing but nod sadly, her gaze fixed on his chest. Max continued his thoughts aloud, thus saving her from attempting to form words.

"She must have done something to Tess' mind to prevent her from remembering what happened, which is why she's been experiencing those blackouts." It was all beginning to fall into place.

"Yes," Liz managed softly. "A-and Alex. He was having blackouts too, remember?"

"Yeah," Max agreed thoughtfully. "But why him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why Alex? This has obviously been going on for a while. It wasn't like Ariana just decided to take over Tess' body one day, then go off and kill him. He'd been experiencing strange happenings for several weeks before he died – he even kept a journal detailing the after effects of them. So what did she want with him? Why did she keep manipulating him all that time?"

Liz sighed, looking down at her hands. "I don't know if you'll want to hear the answer to that, Max."

He straightened, his gaze fixed on Liz. "Liz, it's okay. Just tell me," he told her, mentally bracing himself for what she was about to say.

"Her plan was to get rid of anyone in her way, starting with the non-aliens of the group and ending with Tess," Liz started, but Max cut in.

"Non-aliens? You mean Alex, Maria, Kyle and…you?"

"Yes, but not me. She needed my body, remember?"

"Right," he nodded, "so she was planning to kill Alex, Kyle, Maria and Tess. Why?"

"Well, she wanted the humans out of the way because she considered them tainted and not worthy of your company, and Tess…well I guess that should be obvious. Ariana wants you, Max, and in her mind, Tess is standing right in the way. After all, you _were_ married to her on Antar."

"But what about Michael and Isabel? Was she not interested in them?"

"I don't know. I didn't sense anything from her regarding them. I guess she didn't feel they were enough of a threat to go to the effort of disposing of them."

Max nodded slowly, in resigned agreement. Her words made sense, but it was obvious that there was still more to the story. "Okay, so now we know her plan, but that still doesn't explain what she needed from Alex all these months. Or why both Alex and Tess claim to have thought they were with _you_ during their blackouts."

"I know, and I'm getting to that, Max," Liz replied almost sadly. "Ariana was plotting to turn Alex, Kyle and Maria against me…and you. She started with Alex and was then going to move on to Maria and Kyle. It was supposed to be a slow process, first getting Alex to be suspicious of me –"

"God, the file we found on his computer," Max interrupted suddenly.

Liz nodded, "Yeah…and then planting ideas in Maria and Kyle's heads, so that when Alex spoke up about his suspicions, they would jump right on the bandwagon with him. The idea was that they would cause a split in the group and then once the three of them were far enough out of the way, she could use Tess to kill them and then have Tess kill herself, making it look like a hate crime against them or something. She figured there was no danger of the two of us actually getting back together and making love anytime in the near future." She raised her eyebrows at the irony of it all – the fact that Alex was now dead had actually brought them together.

"So, what went wrong? Why is Alex dead now and why weren't Maria and Kyle affected?" Max was full of questions.

"She didn't get a chance to move on to them. Alex got too close to figuring out the truth and so she killed him."

Max took this in with little reaction. "And the reason he and Tess thought you were involved in it?"

"It was part of the plan. Because Ariana is technically part of me, when she possessed Tess' body, she…took my aura…or something with her, I guess. And because of that, she was able to give Alex the impression that _I _was visiting him, not Tess. She made it so that her…or should I say _my_…presence left a sort of imprint on his brain so that when he woke up, he would have the impression that I was there and therefore he'd have reason to be suspicious of me. As for Tess, I guess having Ariana in her mind also created an impression of me in her mind."

Max let out a breath. "Wow, Liz. This is a lot to take in. I can't believe this was happening right under our noses." He shook his head. "How did we not notice that something was wrong with Alex?"

"Well, he was in Sweden over Christmas and then after he came home, we didn't really see much of him," Liz replied softly.

Max frowned, "Sweden…Liz, are we sure he was definitely in Sweden? I mean, that could have been a cover story for Ariana to get her hands on him or something."

Liz shook her head. "We read his journal remember, Max? He wrote about how his strange dreams and blackouts stopped while he was there. He put it down to finally getting out of New Mexico and away from everything 'Czechoslovakian'."

"Of course; you're right. How could I have forgotten that?"

Liz gave him a small smile, but didn't offer anything else. They sat in silence for a few moments, Max's mind running through everything Liz had just revealed to him, while Liz finally relaxed for the first time in over a week. The truth was finally out. They knew what really happened to Alex. Things were looking up. Granted, they still had to break the news to the others, and somehow inform Tess of her part in it. Then there was the business of using Future Max's 'cure' for Ariana. But still, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Liz let out a sigh, her shoulders slouching. Max looked up at the unexpected noise and his expression softened as his gaze came to rest on Liz's profile. She looked tired, but who could blame her after the day they'd just had? He gave a half-smile and shifted closer to her, wrapping his arm around her comfortingly. Liz relaxed against him, letting her head come to rest on his chest, just below his shoulder. Suddenly feeling the intense need to be even closer to him, she turned on the bed, tucking one leg beneath her so that she could face Max fully. Realising her intention, he did the same and barely a moment later, they were hugging each other tightly, Liz's upper bodies pressed completely against his. Max stroked her hair as she buried her face in the crook of his neck.

"Hey, it's going to be alright," he murmured softly, almost in awe, as his caressing hands created relaxing sensations in Liz that travelled down through her entire body. "We know the truth now and we have the means to stop Ariana from doing anymore damage to us or anyone else."

Liz sighed against him, lifting her head to look into his eyes. "I know, Max, but it's just hard to deal with. You're right, though. We do have the ability to get rid of this…_being_…inside of me and I think we should do it as soon as possible. Just knowing that she's there, in my mind, makes me feel ill. I don't want her there any longer than she has to be."

"All right," Max said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "We'll do it tonight. But first, we need to tell to the others what you just told me."

Liz nodded, "Okay."

"Okay, I'll call Isabel now and ask them to meet us here as soon as they can."

* * *

Half an hour later, the six of them were gathered in Max's room. Liz and Max had relinquished their seats on the bed, allowing Michael, Maria and Kyle to sit down there instead. Isabel had chosen Max's desk chair and Tess was perched on the windowsill. From his spot standing next to Liz in the middle of the room, Max began the task of telling his friends that they had finally discovered the truth.

"Okay guys, first off, I just wanna say sorry that I've had to call two meetings in one day, but we have more news to share with you."

"What is it, Max?" asked Isabel, her expression a mixture of apprehension and curiosity.

Max glanced at Liz, who smiled and gently squeezed his hand in return, before turning back to the others once more. "When Ariana was in control today, Liz was able to gain access to some of her thought and feelings, and…her memories," he started.

It was Maria who spoke up first, "What did you see?" Her features were taught with trepidation, as if she somehow already knew what was coming next.

Liz looked to Max for a moment and then back to Maria again. She took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth.

"It was her fault, she was responsible for Alex's death."

There was a gasp from around the room as the words registered. But Michael was the only one already thinking ahead.

"How is that possible? She's only been 'alive' for a few hours."

"She didn't use my body; she somehow managed to transfer her essence to someone else when she needed to," Liz continued quickly, wanting to get everything out all in one go. "She tried to subconsciously manipulate Alex into turning against Max and I, all the while making him think that it was me that was visiting him, which is why when he woke up afterwards, he thought that I'd been there and became suspicious of me. She partially erased his memory of her visits, which explains the blackouts he was experiencing. Her plan was to gradually turn Alex, Maria and Kyle against us and then kill them discretely once the group had fallen apart. But she didn't get that far as Alex started to figure out what was going on and she had to kill him there and then."

"Oh my God," whispered Maria in shock. "I can't believe this."

Isabel was silent as her hand moved up to cover her mouth, and Liz could see the tears forming in her eyes. Kyle remained stoic, but it was obvious that like Maria, he was shell-shocked too. Michael on the other hand, was immediately on the defensive.

"Say this is true – "

"It is," Liz interrupted firmly.

"Say it _is_ true," he repeated, "who did Ariana use to get to Alex?"

At his words, a small, strangled sound was heard from the window. They all looked to Tess, who had turned pale and was shaking slightly. Liz's features softened. She had figured it out.

"Oh my God, I did it. _I _killed him," she whispered, a sob escaping her lips. "I'm a monster."

Isabel let out a muffled gasp as the implication of her words sunk in. It all made sense now; both Tess and Alex suffering blackouts and memory loss recently; all the strange things that they'd both been experiencing.

Liz shook her head, "You're not a monster, Tess. If anyone is, it's me. I'm the one who has a monster inside of her. That kind of makes it my fault."

"It's nobody's fault!" Max burst out suddenly. "Okay?" he added, a little calmer. "Look, we can't go around blaming each other for something none of us had any control over. We know the truth now; surely that's enough. Tess," he turned to her, "what happened with Ariana was not your fault and we're not going to hold it against you. We've found a way to get rid of her and once she's been taken care of, we'll have a chance to come to terms with everything, start to put this horrid ordeal behind us and move forward."

Unexpectedly, it was Michael who spoke up next. "Max is right," he addressed the whole group. "What happened to Alex was terrible and unforgivable, but not one of us can be held responsible for his death. We need to stick together in this. Agreed?"

"Agreed," stated Maria, from his side. "Kyle?"

"Me too."

"And me," whispered Isabel, finally lowering her hand from her mouth. She straightened in the chair and then turned to the window, "Tess, we may not have accepted you right away, but you're one of the group now. You aren't responsible for Alex's death and we're not going to hold it against you."

Still pale, Tess managed a smile. "Thank you," she muttered, "all of you. Just knowing that you guys don't hate me is…it's going to take some time for me to accept my part in this, and it's a big help to know that you've forgiven me."

Max nodded, his expression filled with empathy towards Tess. Beside him, Liz linked her fingers with his and smiled, first at Tess and then round at the rest of the group.

"Max and I are going to perform the ritual to get rid of Ariana tonight, so you'll all be able to relax soon and get on with normal life. With any luck, she won't show herself between now and then and tomorrow we should all be safe again."

Isabel turned her attention from Tess to Liz. "Are you guys sure it's gonna work?"

Liz and Max shared a semi-confident look. "We hope so," answered Max.

"Look, if you have any trouble, just come and get me, okay? Maybe I can help out or dreamwalk Liz if something goes wrong."

"Okay, we will," Liz spoke for the both of them. "Thanks, Isabel."

Isabel nodded, but Liz had already turned her attention back to Max. She observed as the two of them became completely engrossed in each other. Despite the awful circumstances surrounding their newly rekindled relationship, Isabel hoped that they'd be able to work everything out this time.

_TBC…_


	23. Chapter 23

Part Twenty-Three

"Are you okay?" The first words spoken in almost ten minutes practically echoed around the now empty room. Max pulled back from their embrace as he searched Liz's dark eyes for any sign that she was not all right.

"Yeah…I think," she replied softly. "I just…I'm scared now, Max. What if this doesn't work? What if something goes wrong?"

"We'll just have to make sure that nothing does," stated Max with assurance. "I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, Liz, not if I can help it. I love you too much."

"I love you too, Max," whispered Liz tenderly.

As if the seriousness of the situation had just finally been realised in his mind, Max lowered his head to capture her lips in a meaningful caress as they held each other tightly. They'd been standing together, locked in an embrace in the centre of Max's bedroom since the rest of the group had left twenty minutes ago. Isabel was now safely back in her own room, but 'on call' as she'd put it, in case anything went wrong with their attempt to rid Liz's body of Ariana's presence.

Reluctantly, Max kissed her lips one last time before pulling away to look into her eyes. "I think we ought to do this, then."

Liz briefly made eye contact with him before lowering her gaze to the collar of his cotton shirt, staring intently at it as she replied, "Yeah, I guess we should…so, do you have the piece of paper?" She'd left the 'cure' in Max's care that morning, in case Ariana took over her body and tried to destroy it. Luckily, it had been the right choice, considering what had happened out at the quarry that afternoon.

"Yeah, I do. It's right here," Max assured her as he detached his arm from around her waist and reached into his back pocket to retrieve the folded sheet.

"Okay," Liz reached up and slipped the paper from his hand. She opened it up and scanned over the words written there. "Right. So it seems you'll have to do most of the work here. Apparently, all I have to do is lie down."

Max watched her face carefully as she read the notes. No doubt about it; she was scared. He tilted her chin up with his fingers so that he could look into her eyes. "Liz, I'm not going to let anything happen to you here. I promise," he swore, his gaze unwavering. "Besides, all of this is my fault. If it weren't for me, none of this would be happening. It's my responsibility to make sure you don't get hurt because of my actions."

Liz's eyes searched his face intently. "Max, I am scared here, I'll admit that, but I know you'd never intentionally hurt me. I trust you," she told him imploringly. "But, please don't ever think this is your fault, because it's not. We can't be held accountable for everything that has happened to us over the last few months, years even. It was out of our control. Max, this is bigger than just us. It's about Ariana and Zan, and their twisted relationship, and it began long before we even met. I doubt there was anything we could have done to prevent it."

Max let his hand drop from her chin, as his head lowered guiltily. "Except sleeping together. That's what caused this; it's what released Ariana, and it's probably what's gonna get us killed one day."

Liz's expression softened and she moved her free hand up to his face, caressing his cheek lovingly. "Max, I could _never_ regret making love to you, not in a million years. It was the most special, meaningful experience of my life and I would never take that back, I couldn't," she smiled. "Look, we have a cure here; we have a chance to make this right. So please, stop blaming yourself for things you can't control and let's look to the future."

Max nodded slowly, "Okay. Let's put a stop to this once and for all."

Liz let out a relieved sigh, "Okay. Thank you." She looked down at the notes once more. "Well, it looks like I have to lie down and then you have to connect with me."

"Right. Well, that seems easy enough." He glanced over at the bed briefly, before slipping his hand in hers. "After you?" He led her over to the bed and helped her get settled.

"Yeah," replied Liz, once she was comfortable. "But the hard part is going to be what you have to do once we're connected."

"You let me worry about that, okay?" he told her.

"Okay," she smiled softly at him before turning serious once again. "So, do you have the orbs?"

"Yeah, they're right here," he nodded, reaching over to retrieve the two silver, rugby-ball-shaped artefacts. "Man, who knew that this would be the real use for these?"

"I know," murmured Liz from beside him. "If only we'd discovered the truth earlier: that the message for your mother was just a cover up for their true purpose; then maybe we could have saved ourselves a lot of trouble."

"It doesn't matter now," Max dismissed softly. "We finally know what they really are." He sent Liz a reassuring glance, "So, let's see if they really work."

Liz lay back against the pillows as Max placed an orb on either side of her body. He gently cupped her face with his hands and made eye contact with her, opening their connection. Liz gasped and with a frown of concentration, Max began to furrow through the dozens of images of the two of them together, as he tried to access Liz's more deeply hidden memories. As he ventured closer to his destination, the orbs began to glow, but beads of perspiration formed on his forehead, as his exploration into her mind started taking a toll on his body. Finally, he hit an invisible barrier, one that seemed to be preventing him from getting any further. In an attempt to break down the obstruction, he tried to nudge it with his mind, but every time he did so, Liz would cry out as if in pain. Eventually, he had to stop, his efforts fruitless, and with an exhausted sigh, he pulled away.

"I'm sorry, Liz, it's no use. I can't get in."

Despite the lingering pain, Liz grabbed his arm. "No, Max, you can. I know it," she insisted. "We just have to try harder."

"Liz, I don't think –" Max protested, but she cut him off.

"No, we _have_ to," she said forcefully. "Max, I can't stand this any longer; it's feels like my body is being violated. I feel used and dirty and I hate it! I need to be me again." Her tone was both anguished and pleading and it just about broke his heart.

"Okay," he stated resolutely, a rush of determination flowing through him. "I'm going to do what I can to help you, Liz, but it's probably going to hurt. Can you handle that?"

She let out a sigh of relief and smiled tiredly, "With you, Max, I can handle anything."

Max had to swallow against the sudden lump in his throat as he took in her resolute expression. "Are you ready?"

Liz nodded, and he moved closer to her in order to re-establish the connection. This time, however, he also lowered his mouth to hers, knowing that physical contact like this would only enhance the strength of their bond. Fleetingly, the thought occurred to him that perhaps if they could release Ariana once more, they might have a better chance of overcoming her. However, he had no intention of putting Liz through that again, especially if she would retain the memories, and there was also no way that he was going to suggest that they slept together right now in order for that to happen. So instead, he caressed Liz's lips with his own and prayed that he could do this for her now.

* * *

This time, it didn't take Max nearly as long to rifle through Liz's memories. Once again, he found himself blocked when he reached the barrier separating Ariana's sub-consciousness from Liz's; however, now he found that it only took a couple of nudges and one pretty hard shove with his mind to penetrate it. As he pushed through, he mentally apologised to Liz for the pain he was causing her. He was on the verge of pulling away, but then he felt Liz's arms loop around his torso, holding him still, and he forced himself to continue. Once through the barrier, he concentrated all his energy on the task at hand: pushing Ariana's essence out of Liz and into the now glowing orbs. He carefully lifted both hands, planting them firmly on each side of her head, letting his powers flow through them. They began to act as a magnetic force, attracting the alien presence towards them and away from Liz.

After several minutes of struggling with his powers, Max could feel the perspiration dripping down his face, landing in small droplets on his chest. He could tell that his efforts were starting to have some effect, but unfortunately he was rapidly was running out of energy. If something drastic didn't happen soon, he was going to pass out. He shifted in surprise as Liz's hands covered his and she deepened their kiss. This added help from her was just what he needed to give the last, vital push. Liz stiffened and then, with a cry of pain, she began to tremble. At first, Max was worried for her safety, but then something snapped in his mind and the pressure he was pushing against suddenly began to dissipate, as the alien essence flowed out through his fingers and into the orbs.

As the last remnants of 'Ariana' left Liz's body, Max finally dropped the connection and collapsed above her. They held each other tightly as Max caught his breath and Liz slowly recovered from the pain he had inadvertently caused her. The situation suddenly became too much for her, and Liz broke down, sobbing.

"Shh," Max stroked her hair soothingly as she let go of her emotions. "It's okay, it's okay."

"God, Max," she whispered through her tears. "Is it really over? Is she really gone?"

"Yes, she's really gone. We did it, Liz," he replied in awe.

She let out a huge sigh of relief. The weight of the last week was finally lifting from her shoulders. "Thank you, Max."

"Anything for you, Liz. I love you," he told her, his voice thick with emotion.

"I love you, too, Max. Forever."

It was over. Finally.

Now maybe they could go back to living their normal lives, this time together.

_TBC_…


	24. Chapter 24

**Part Twenty-Four**

Lying together on Max's bed, arms and legs tangled as one, was how Isabel found Max and Liz early the next morning. The moment she opened the door and saw them sleeping peacefully, she breathed a sigh of relief; Future Max's 'cure' must have worked. She remained in the doorway, her mind finally accepting the fact that perhaps all their troubles were now over, until Liz stirred in Max's arms and began to wake. As she turned to leave, her gaze was drawn to the bedside table, where the two silver orbs were resting. Isabel frowned. Did the orbs have something to do with whomever or whatever had taken over Liz's body? It seemed that yet another serious talk between the six of them was imminent…just as soon as Max and Liz were able to pry themselves away from each other, of course.

* * *

"Mmm, morning," mumbled Liz against Max's chest as she felt him stir beneath her.

"Morning," he whispered, his voice thick with sleep.

"I'm exhausted," she sighed lethargically.

Max smiled down at her tenderly, "I'm not surprised; we used up a lot of energy last night." He ran a hand down over her arm. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," she replied. "I feel like me again."

"Well, that can only be a good thing," he decided happily.

Liz leaned up and pressed a small kiss to his lips. "Thank you, Max; for everything. I know it must have taken a lot out of you to do what you did for me last night and I just want you to know that I will always be grateful to you for it."

"Liz, you have to know by now that I will do everything in my power to make sure you're safe. And besides, I wasn't the only one using my power against Ariana. You also have to know that without your help, we couldn't have done this."

She nodded, "I do, but thank you anyway." She gazed up at him affectionately, "I love you, Max; so much."

"And I you," he replied, his contented smile gradually becoming a grin. He was really getting used to being able to say those words to her again. A sudden rush of emotion swept over him and he shifted so that he could lean down to kiss her properly. His lips met hers briefly and he closed his eyes at the sensation. He could finally be with her again without the fear of something happening to her. That thought alone encouraged his movements and he moved above her, his tongue now duelling with hers.

The second the kiss began to deepen, Liz realised Max's intention and shifted accordingly to accommodate him. She let out a sigh as his body sank down on top of her and she responded to him eagerly, winding her arms around his neck. As their embrace deepened, Liz shivered as Max's hands slid up her arms slowly, removing them from his neck and bringing them above her head. He linked his fingers with hers, effectively pinning her hands against the pillow as he began raining kisses across her face and down her neck.

Liz felt him harden against her thigh and let out a gasp at the feel of it. Almost completely on instinct, she wrapped her legs around his hips and this time it was Max's turn to suck in a breath as their lower bodies came together. As Max's lips returned to hers and his tongue plunged into her mouth fervently, Liz became overwhelmed with the urge to be as close to him as humanly possible. She slipped her hands out from under Max's loose grip above her head and snaked them between their bodies, eager to remove the last barriers of clothing between them. Max's hands remained resting above her head on the pillow, but he shifted his weight onto his elbows in order to help her in her task. Liz shimmied out of her pants and tugged her panties down over her hips before slipping her fingers into the waistband of Max's trousers and pulling them down too. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back when she felt his length pressing intimately against her aching core. She rolled her hips gently beneath him and they both let out small moans as he slowly moved against her. They remained like that for several moments, rocking together, but not actually consummating the act. As Max's length stroked back and forth against her clit, Liz could feel a tight knot forming in her stomach as the pleasure began to build.

"Oh, God, Max…" she muttered breathlessly. "I need…"

"I know," murmured Max softly. "I do too, but…"

"Max, please…" she practically begged. She needed him; she needed to feel him inside of her.

"We can't, Liz," he managed. "I don't have anything."

"You don't?" she breathed. "But what about the other day?" Liz was puzzled, how could he not have protection? He was certainly prepared before.

"That, umm…that was my only one," he confessed. It was true; he'd been too embarrassed to buy anything from the store, especially considering that everyone knew him, so when he'd spotted some condoms in Michael's bathroom a while ago, he'd sneakily slipped one into his pocket.

"Oh," murmured Liz in understanding, although still very aware of his bare skin pressing enticingly against hers. "Well, then I guess…I guess we'd better stop."

"No!" Max exclaimed suddenly, but caught himself when he realised that he was speaking too loudly. "I mean, we don't have to stop completely…you know, there are still other things we could do."

A smile began to form on Liz's lips. "Other things? And what kind of 'other things' were you thinking of, Mr. Evans?"

Max didn't reply, he simply smirked down at Liz, before sliding his hands beneath her shirt and pulling it over her head. He reached behind her to unclasp and remove her bra. Once she was bare before him, he took his time in worshipping her body, pressing soft kisses and caresses to her warm skin and running his fingertips up her sides and down across her stomach. Liz's breathing became heavy as his gentle touch triggered a wave of feeling throughout her body. It flowed over her, making her tingle from head to toe. As Max lowered his head to her stomach, his tongue darting out to taste and tease her skin, the muscles in Liz's abdomen tensed in anticipation of what was to come and she sucked in a ragged breath, before exhaling heavily, his name spilling from her lips.

With an almost timid smile, Max continued his journey down her body. Despite his bold behaviour at the current moment, he was nervous nonetheless. They had never ventured into this form of intimacy before, not even when they'd been together last year, and he wasn't totally sure what he was supposed to do. His fears were virtually put to rest though when, as he traced her inner thigh with his fingers and pressed a kiss to her lower stomach, Liz threaded her fingers through his hair and began to urge him closer to where she needed him most.

At the first touch of his tongue to her clit, Liz's body jerked beneath Max and she gasped, tightening her grip on his hair. She'd never felt anything like this before. Sure, they'd made love only a couple of days ago, but this was different…and oh so good. Max's ministrations were invoking feelings in her that she'd never even imagined. God, she didn't want this to end. Ever.

Max continued to stroke her with his tongue and also his fingers until Liz was panting uncontrollably below him. He grinned against her skin as he realised that he was the one making her feel this way, that he was the only person who [i]_could_[/i] make her feel like this. However, despite the rush it gave him to know that he was responsible for Liz's current state of ecstasy; his body was also throbbing for release. Unconsciously, he began to move his hips in time with Liz's, his lower body pressing against the mattress in such a way that it sent tingles through his groin. As he brought Liz closer and closer to release, his own body responded in kind and the moment she came apart in his arms, his thrusts against the mattress increased as his climax washed over him.

Max crawled up her body and collapsed in an exhausted, yet sated state next to her. He held her to him, stroking her hair lovingly as they both came down from their high.

"Wow," sighed Liz a few moments later. "Where did you learn to do that?"

Max bit back a smile. "I didn't," he replied softly. "It was my first time."

"Really?" she wondered, turning to peer up at him. "Well, then, I guess that explains Ariana's infatuation with you."

The smile quickly left Max's face and he stiffened against her. "Don't ever joke about her, Liz, please. I just want to forget she ever existed."

Liz let out a sigh, realising her mistake. "I'm sorry, that was a bad choice of words. I'll just shut up now."

Immediately, Max felt bad about biting her head off like that. He turned onto his side, gesturing for her to move closer.

"Hey, come here."

He reached out and engulfed Liz in a tight hug; their bodies flush against each other, stretched out on the bed.

"I love you, Liz," he whispered into her hair. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Me either, Max," she replied emotionally. "Let's never be apart again, okay?"

"Okay," he agreed readily. "I'm not letting you out of my sight anytime soon."

Liz chuckled into his shoulder, "That might be a little hard considering I live on the other side of town and we only share a couple of classes at school."

"You know what I mean," he replied softly.

"I do, Max," smiled Liz, pulling away slightly to look into his eyes. "And the same goes for me, too. But speaking of home and classes, we really should get up now. We need to got to school and also fill everyone in on what happened last night."

"I guess you're right," sighed Max in disappointment. "But for the record, I don't wanna go; I wanna stay right here, with you."

"Me too, but you know we have to," she said, extracting herself from his arms and sitting up in the bed. "Come on, the sooner we get today over with and tell them, the sooner we can be alone again."

"Fine," grumbled Max as he pulled himself up and reached for his pants.

Ten minutes later, they were both fully dressed and ready to face the day. However, when they finally made it downstairs, Isabel was nowhere in sight, which was probably a good thing considering what they just been doing upstairs. Realising they were late for school, Max quickly grabbed some fruit for the two of them and they set off for school…and the inevitable confrontation with the rest of the group.

_TBC_…


	25. Chapter 25

**Part Twenty-Five**

Max and Liz strolled into school hand-in-hand, identical grins on their faces. They couldn't seem to keep their eyes, or lips for that matter, off each other; which generated both curious stares and grossed-out expressions from the small groups of students milling around outside the school building. Together, they entered the school, stopping first by Max's locker so that he could pick up his books and then making their way towards Liz's locker to fetch hers.

They reached the row of metal doors and, failing to notice their captive audience, Max pressed Liz against her locker, capturing her lips in an indulgent kiss, his hands creeping up behind her neck. His fingers sank into her silky mane of hair as her arms slid around his waist, pulling him closer to her. When they eventually pulled apart, breathless and giddy with happiness, it took several moments for their focus to shift from each other to the small group now surrounding them with expectant expressions on their faces.

"So, um," Maria cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow. "I take it everything went according to plan last night?"

Liz glanced up at Max, flashing him a brief smile, before turning to face her friend.

"Yeah, it did," she grinned. "It went great. Ariana is gone…she's never coming back; and Max and I are together."

Maria smiled happily at her two friends for a moment, before becoming serious. "As happy as I am…as we all are…for the two of you, I have to know…how do you know this is permanent? What's to stop Ariana from returning?"

"And what was with the orbs on your bedside table this morning?" Isabel blurted out, before slapping her hand to her mouth when she realised that she'd just admitted to seeing them together earlier.

Max gave his sister an inquiring, yet slightly suspicious look, but elected not to question her. Instead, he chose to concentrate on Maria's concerns.

"Yes, this is permanent, Maria. The instructions that the future version of me left for Liz explained the true purpose of the orbs that we found. Not only are they a contact beacon between here and Antar, but they can also be used to capture a person's essence, their soul, if you like," he told the group, effectively answering Isabel's question in the process. "And once the soul is inside them, the only way if can escape is if someone consciously uses their powers to do so."

"But, how do you know that an evil alien won't come along and do just that?" asked Michael gruffly.

Max looked down at Liz for a moment, who gave him and encouraging smile, before fixing his gaze on his friend, "Because, Michael, there are only four people who have the power to do that, and they are all standing right here by these lockers."

"You mean the Royal Four?" piped up Maria.

"Yep," Max nodded. "And although I know that none of you would ever choose to do that, Liz and I have decided that the best course of action is to completely destroy the orbs."

"But that would mean destroying our only means of contacting our planet," murmured Isabel.

"Yes," Max nodded again. "It would. Are you okay with that?"

She shrugged. "I guess I have to be," she replied; although in truth, she wasn't sure she'd ever want to try contacting their home anyway.

"Thank you, Izzy," Max smiled at her gratefully, before continuing. "Okay, so we'll go out to the pod chamber after school and get rid of the orbs. Michael, Izzy, Tess," he addressed them in turn, "I think we're gonna need your help with this."

* * *

Eight hours later, the seven of them, Maria and Kyle included, stood inside the pod chamber. Isabel, Michael, Tess and Max made a small circle in the middle of the front cave; the two orbs nestled carefully between their hands in the middle. Liz stood just behind Max, her hand resting supportively on his lower back as he, along with the other three, concentrated on sending their power to the orbs.

At first, nothing happened and Liz started to worry that for some reason, the orbs _couldn't_ be destroyed, but eventually the silver football-shaped objects began to emanate a soft, blue glow. However, almost a full minute later, the glow hadn't changed in appearance or colour and Liz noticed that beads of sweat were rolling down Max's forehead. As a gesture of encouragement, she slipped her hand over one of his and squeezed it lightly. He didn't move his eyes from the orb in his hands, but a small, grateful smile appeared on his lips a second later.

In an attempt to renew some of his strength, Max sucked in a breath as he concentrated on sending his energy into the orbs. The feel of Liz's hand covering his only made him even more determined to destroy the offending objects, and in a rush of anger at the pain Ariana had caused them, he pushed his brain harder. Suddenly, a renewed burst of energy shot through his body and out of his and Liz's joined hands. It encased both the orb in his and Isabel's hands and the one Michael and Tess were holding causing the glow to turn a bright purple. For several moments, the glow simply remained, like a bubble surrounding the Royal Four, and the occupants of the cave just stared at it, open-mouthed. Max was on the verge of attempting to aim his powers at the bubble one more, but before he could act on his instincts, the purple energy began to pulsate and intensify. Suddenly, it was sucked into the whirlwind symbols on the orbs, like the implosion of a dying star, before a bright, white light burst from them, almost blinding them. Silver debris flew everywhere as the orbs exploded outwards. The Royal Four and Liz were thrown backwards by the force of the explosion, whilst Maria and Kyle flattened themselves against the rocks of the cave wall.

After several seconds, the light dimmed and the cave returned to normal; the slight glowing of the remains showing the only evidence that the orbs ever existed. Cautiously, Max climbed to his feet, pulling Liz up with him, and brushed them both off.

"Is everyone okay?"

His question was met with silence, although most of the others managed weak nods.

"Well, I guess it's over then," Max supplied unnecessarily.

Isabel frowned as she got to her feet, "Are we completely sure about that, Max? I mean this almost seemed too easy. You know, we concentrate our energy on the orbs and then they just explode, gone forever. It can't be that simple."

"You know, I didn't think it would be like this, either, Izzy," he replied softly, hugging Liz to his chest as he spoke. "But what more can we do? The orbs are gone; you can see that. Ariana's gone. So, I say we go home, relax and be grateful that we were able to solve this mystery."

* * *

"Wow, it feels like a whole weight's been lifted off my chest," commented Liz, as she and Max took a seat on her bed later that evening.

"I know what you mean," chuckled Max, placing an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. "And we finally know the truth about Alex. But, Liz," he turned to her in all seriousness. "I hate that you had to go through all of this because of me. I never wanted to hurt you, and lately it seems like that's all I've been doing."

"Max," started Liz, lifting her hand to caress his cheek. "It's okay; I don't blame you. I love you so much and I don't think I could live without you, so please don't start thinking I'd be better off without you, because that's just not true."

Max stared down at her pleading eyes, his heart swelling with gratitude and love for her.

"Actually, you know what? As much as I think you would be better off without me, I'm gonna have to be selfish and keep you all to myself. I love you too much to let you go know."

A delighted smile spread across Liz's lips as she leaned up to him for a kiss.

"Make love to me, Max," she murmured against his lips. "Right here, right now."

"Anything for you," he whispered, unable to resist her.

As the kiss deepened and Liz's tongue slid against his erotically, his hands found the hem of her shirt and he pulled it over her head. They undressed each other slowly, savouring every moment together; and when they were both naked, Max gently lay Liz against the pillows. They were unhurried in their movements and caresses, driving each other crazy with the tortured pleasure. Max was careful to explore every inch of Liz's body, stroking and nipping at her skin until she begged for more and even then he denied her the release she craved. When he did finally enter her, Liz was so close to release that her climax swept over her almost immediately and the pleasure only built from there, escalating to a high she'd never experienced before.

"I'll never leave you, Liz Parker," murmured Max as he came down from his own release several minutes later. "You're my forever."

"And you're mine," she replied tenderly, stroking the hair back from his forehead.

They lay together in each other's arms, sated and happy, as they fell into a deep, contented sleep.

* * *

It was pitch black outside in the desert, the consequence of it being two in the morning, yet inside the pod chamber there was an eerie glow. Had anyone been there, they would have observed the small pieces of broken orb vibrating on the floor of the cave as they glowed brightly and then rose into the air, forming a swirling cloud of purples and pinks.

For several minutes, the cloud simply remained suspended in mid-air, but a spilt second later, a crackle of energy spilt the air, much like fork lightning on a stormy night, and the cloud spun faster and faster. Without warning, it shot out an arm of sorts, spearing through the door to the Granilith. There was no one around to see this, but if there had been, they would have observed as the cloud filtered into the base of the Granilith, gradually filling the inverted-cone-shaped chamber from the bottom up.

As Max and Liz found the ultimate pleasure in each other's bodies in Liz's bed just across town, the swirling mist pulsated in a steady rhythm. Just before the purple glow within the immense object faded to darkness, a face became visible in the centre of the cone, an evil smirk masking its features

It was the face of Liz Parker.

**_The End_**


End file.
